


The Haunting of Everlock High School

by SummerInAmsterdam



Category: Escape the Night (Web Series), Scooby Doo - All Media Types, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Based off of Scooby Doo, Breaking and Entering, Cemetery, Clues, Comfort, Detention, Diners, Food Fight, Friendship, Getting to Know Each Other, Ghosts, Humor, Mystery, Old Friends, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2019-10-14 05:06:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 72,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17502146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerInAmsterdam/pseuds/SummerInAmsterdam
Summary: When trouble stirs in the halls of Everlock High School, ten students are brought together to solve the mystery.





	1. The Storm Before

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ever since a little while after Season 3 aired, I've been having some fun imagining what it would be like if it was set in an actual Scooby-Doo type of situation (instead of all the dying and stuff). So I decided to write this! I hope you enjoy!
> 
>  
> 
> Also quick little thing: When you get to the middle of the second section of this chapter, I highly recommend listening to a video called "something to calm me down when I'm anxious" with some rainstorm sound effects playing alongside it while you read the rest of that section. Okay, carry on!

“Joey… _Joey!”_

Joey Graceffa snapped back to reality as Nikita Dragun whispered his name. He’d been staring at the overcast sky outside the classroom for so long that he hadn’t realized how much time had past. It was just so rare that the weather in Los Angeles looked like it was about to rain.

“You still with us?” she asked in her standard sharp tone.

“Yeah,” Joey whispered back. “Sorry.”

But he could tell they didn’t buy it. Manny Gutierrez was giving him a concerned look as well. “Bitch, you looked like a dead fish just now,” he said.

“I’m good, guys,” Joey assured the two of them. “Just spacing out a little.”

“Ahem!” Their history teacher, Mr. Cash, got their attention. “Is there something any of you would like to share with the rest of the class?”

The other students turned their attention to the three of them. That was probably what he wanted. Joey didn’t really know why Mr. Cash was a history teacher, considering he hated kids. Manny once mentioned that he was almost positive that Mr. Cash had some kind of radar thingy that told him when his students didn’t have any idea what the hell he was talking about.

" _It's a conspiracy, guys,_ " Manny had said when he first brought it up. " _I'm telling you._ "

“Uh, no sir,” Joey muttered.

Mr. Cash didn’t seem too happy about that, but he didn’t seem to be in the mood to drag it on for once. Instead, he turned back to the board and continued his lecture on World War I. He always seemed to be pretty keen on talking about military history. He apparently had a huge collection of military items, some of which were around the classroom. Everyday when he walked into class, Joey was greeted by a giant glass case full of old military badges staring down at him from the other side of the room.

Joey caught Jc Caylen glancing his way for a moment. Jc flashed him an apologetic glance; he’d been called out by Mr. Cash more than once because he thought he wasn’t paying attention, even though his doodles _did_ , in fact, have to do with the lecture. Joey then met eyes with his old friend, Colleen Ballinger, for a brief second. He was about to offer a smile when she rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her notebook.

His heart sank a little.

“You okay, Joey?” Manny asked.

“Yeah,” Joey replied. “I’m pretty sure it’s just the weather or something.”

Really, though, he was kind of less than okay. Joey had already been feeling somewhat foggy all day, but Colleen’s eye roll only added a sad little knot to it.

When they were kids, Colleen used to be one of Joey’s best friends. They grew apart by the time they were in seventh grade. It was just one of those things that happened sometimes. You become best friends with someone as a kid, you grow up a little, then you grow apart. But Joey couldn’t help but notice how tense and hostile Colleen was around him. Now that they were both sophomores, they were practically strangers. He knew it probably wasn’t that big of a deal, but it still sucked that someone he used to love so much seemed to hate him so much now.

He was glad to have Manny and Nikita, though. He met them during his first week of freshman year. Manny and Nikita were already best friends before Joey met them, so he was nervous about talking to them at first. It turned out he didn’t really have anything to worry about. Despite his size and general sass, Manny was a giant teddy bear. Nikita was intimidating at first, but she turned out to be the kind of person who would tear you a new one if you messed with her friends. The three of them talked a lot in part because of their shared classes, and they grew close pretty quickly.

“Want me to rough him up for you guys later?” Nikita whispered.

Manny chuckled. “He’s a grown man, Nikita. Besides, you’ll get in trouble.”

“Well, just say the word,” she replied.

As mentioned before, she’d tear someone a new one if they messed with her boys.

Joey managed to shake off part of the spacey feeling in an attempt to pay attention to the rest of the lecture. He figured his foggy head might just be because of the weather, or the fact that it was the last class of the day. He figured he’d feel better once he got home. Despite his best efforts, his eyes still traveled back to the window every so often.

The weather was getting worse pretty quickly… almost unnaturally quickly. The clouds appeared to be getting darker and darker by the moment. The wind started to pick up, forcing leaves against the windows. Out of the corner of his eye, Joey would catch Manny and Nikita glancing out the window, too.

The monotone bell eventually sounded off, signalling the end of the day, and everyone left for home. The three friends gathered their things and started out the main building.

“Is that normal?” Joey asked as they walked down the corridor. “Storms don’t usually roll in that fast, do they?”

“There’s definitely some 2012 shit going on out there,” Manny said.

“It’s just a little rain building up, guys.” Nikita assured them. “I highly doubt the world is gonna end any time soon. I think we’ll be okay.”

That was a difference between Manny and Nikita. Manny was the kind of person who let his imagination run away with him. He generally avoided scary or dangerous situations, and assumed that any strange noise was a monster or an axe murderer. As for Nikita, nothing ever seemed to scare her. It wasn’t really because she thought rationally, but more because she’d probably just walk up and backhand the danger in the face on principle.

Joey knew Nikita was probably right. Maybe there _wasn’t_ anything to worry about, but something still felt off.

 

An hour later, Colleen and Jc were two of four people, along with Teala Dunn, at Roi Fabito’s house. They were making a gargantiate amount of slime, which was Roi’s idea. They’d found a recipe online, but they were following it pretty sporadically. They kept thinking that they needed more of this, or a little less of that.

Colleen looked up from her bowl of slime that had a _way_ too much glitter in it. “Have you ever thought of using your bathtub as… like, a _bathtub_ , Roi?” she asked him.

“I _do_ use the bathtub as a bathtub,” Roi replied.

“True,” Jc said, “but none of the stuff you put in a bathtub generally belongs in a bathtub.”

“Well,” Roi said, shrugging, “if any of you guys have any suggestions, I’m all ears.”

Teala offered a suggestion. “What about a giant bath bomb? _Those_ go in bathtubs. Like, you could crush a bunch of smaller ones together to make a huge one.”

Roi raised a finger. “I’ll add that one to the list,” he said as he picked up a bottle of glue.

Colleen didn’t know if Roi actually had a list, but she wouldn’t be surprised if he did. He was always taking all kinds of risks and throwing himself into shenanigans for the hell of it. She loved him for it, though.

Their project was suddenly interrupted by the sound of distant thunder. A few drops of rain tapped against the window leading to the backyard.

“Looks like it’s finally storming,” Colleen said.

“It’s about time,” Jc added. “I thought the clouds would never let up.”

The storm had been building so quickly earlier that day, and then it abruptly stopped right before it was about to rain as class ended for the day. As weird as it was, it didn’t seem to strike some people as too strange. Rain wasn’t very common in Los Angeles, so that would have been a surprise on it’s own. On the other hand, it was a thunderstorm. Those kinds of storms were even _less_ common in Los Angeles.

Lightning continued to flash, and the thunder that followed was getting louder. Heavy, angry rain pounded against the glass. The commotion caused the four of them to glance out the window.

Teala knitted her eyebrows nervously. “What the…” she muttered.

They all moved to the window to get a better view of the chaos transpiring outside. Roi climbed up on the counter while the rest of them stayed on the floor. The rain was throwing itself to the ground in sheets. Lightning cracked through the sky and lit up the world. Leaves that weren’t glued to the ground or the window were flying through the air. Trees writhed and flailed as the wind howled louder and louder until it became a scream. Tiny branches fell out of the tree in the backyard and slammed into the window. The force of said branches wasn’t strong enough to do any damage, but the noise was definitely jarring.

“Should we be worried?” Teala asked, backing away from the window.

Colleen had become accustomed to questions like that from Teala a long time ago. She was a sweetheart, but she usually seemed worried about _something_ . Even so, Colleen couldn’t help but feel uneasy about the storm, too. Even Roi had a slight trace of fear in his eyes.

“Nah,” Jc said, “this kind of rain happens all the time. It just needs to scream and break stuff until it tires itself out, and it’ll be fine.”

“Like Roi after he’s had too much coffee?” Colleen joked.

“Yeah,” Jc replied, “ _exactly_ like that.”

“Hey!” Roi said, but then he paused. “Actually, yeah, you’re probably right.”

That seemed to calm Teala down a bit, and Colleen and Roi let themselves relax as well. That seemed to be Jc’s role in their little group; he was usually the one who kept everyone grounded in times of trouble.

Colleen pushed herself up on the counter to sit on the opposite end of the window from Roi. Jc pulled up a stool and sat cross-legged between them. Teala inched closer until she could lean on the counter between Jc and Colleen, and rested her chin in her hands. They all settled themselves by the window together, staring as lightning lit up the sky and water flowed down in ripples against the cool glass. Teala reached over and drew a little smiley face with her finger. It felt like a sort of hypnotic tranquility, and Colleen thought she might just fall asleep at any moment, right there, surrounded by her friends and listening to the sound of the storm.

After about five minutes, the thunder was getting farther away. The rain finally let up. The clouds started parting, revealing rays of golden sunlight.

Jc gestured outside. “There you go, guys. It’s all good.”

Colleen smiled when she saw Teala smiling. She seemed to be calming down as the storm went on, but she looked a lot better now that it was ending. Colleen turned her attention to Roi, who had an all-too-familiar look of longing on his face

Colleen smirked. “Roi, no.”

Roi glanced at her with the same longing look. He said nothing.

“No…”

No response.

“Roi, I swear to-”

He flew off the counter and made a break for the door. Jc, Teala and Colleen went after him.

“Roi!” Teala cried out, trying and failing not to laugh. “You’re wearing a white shirt!”

“White shirts were meant to not be white anymore!” Roi called back.

Colleen couldn’t help but feel a rush of sentiment for the three of them. They came into her life a long time ago and took care of her when she needed them. She decided after she met them that she wanted to take care of them, too. She was grateful to be a part of what they were.

She followed her friends outside. The air was hot and sticky, and it smelled so much more fresh than it had before it rained. Birds were singing, as if they were signalling their companions that it was safe to come out. The clouds were already starting to change color, and Colleen was thinking about how the sky would probably be turning into a pile of cotton candy soon.

The four of them spent the rest of the afternoon sliding through puddles and flinging mud at each other as the sun came out. It was a little juvenile, and their parents would probably yell at them for getting dirty, but they were still having fun. Despite all the smiling and laughter, Colleen and the others still had a nagging feeling that something, _somewhere_ , wasn’t right.

 

The late afternoon sun broke through the trees as three more friends ran through the woods in a nearby park. Puffs of dirt flew behind Matthew Patrick as he dashed down the road. Matt normally didn’t run this much, mostly because he was self conscious about his legs. It had taken him about twenty minutes to dig out a decent pair of track pants to wear instead of shorts.

Just a few yards ahead of him were his two best friends: Rosanna Pansino and Safiya Nygaard.  Rosanna was in the lead. Despite her petite stature, she was a pretty fast runner. Her light brown ponytail flew behind her as she ducked under branches and leaped over rocks sticking out of the ground. Safiya wasn’t too far behind her. She was pretty tall, and her stride gave her an advantage. The only problem was that she kept stumbling over things as they got further into the woods.

“MatPat! Safiya!” Rosanna called out.“Let’s take a break up ahead!”

They all slowed to a stop at a clearing, and they stretched out their arms and legs against a fallen tree.

“Ro,” Matt said between stretches, “I still don’t see why you couldn’t get someone else to do this. Like someone more athletic, or someone with more nicely sculpted legs, maybe?”

Rosanna giggled. “Well, company motivates me, and you guys are awesome company.”

Matt smiled at her. He and Rosanna had known each other since they were children. When Matt had first met her, she’d almost instantly felt like family, and they’d stayed close ever since. She even helped pick out his nickname, “MatPat.” They hadn’t met Safiya until a week into their freshman year, but now it felt like they’d known her forever. It was always easy for them to hang out because of the fact that they all had theatre together. And it was like Rosanna said, they were Matt’s favorite company.

Safiya stared up at the sky. “I’m just glad that storm cleared up so quickly,” she said. “It’s weird, though. I don’t remember anything about rain in the forecast today.”

“Maybe it’s aliens,” Rosanna suggested. “Maybe they messed with the weather or something when they were landing. That’d be cool, right, Saf?”

“I hope that’s the case,” she agreed. Safiya _did_ love aliens.

“How awesome of a headline would _that_ be?” Matt asked. Safiya was a member of their school’s newspaper, The Everlock Bulletin, and she treated it like her firstborn child.

“Probably cool enough to get me a full ride to college in a couple years,” Safiya joked, and she spread her out her hands. “‘This just in: Scientists have discovered that aliens’ saucers screw up the weather as they enter the atmosphere!’”

Rosanna added to her imaginary headline. “‘Coming up next: An interview with the pilot of the mothership. Are they friendly? Or are they here to harvest everyone’s organs?’”

“Do aliens harvest organs?” Matt asked.

Safiya shrugged. “I _hope_ not.”

“Who knows?” Rosanna asked. “Maybe all they want is a friend.”

Matt pretended to hold a microphone. “‘Do aliens _really_ harvest organs? Or are they just lonely beings who crave companionship? Who are they? Where did they come from? What who they want? Why am I asking the audience all these questions?! _Aaaaaaaaahh_!! More at eleven.’”

Everyone laughed. They sat down on the fallen tree, almost forgetting that they were working out a few minutes ago. The quick stretch break turned into hanging out, joking and talking about dumb things.

Matt eventually noticed that Rosanna looked as though she were distracted by something in the distance. “Ro, you okay?” he asked her.

She pointed off to where she was staring. “Guys, look over there.”

Matt and Safiya followed Rosanna’s hand to the park’s cemetery a little ways off the road.

“Convenient place for a cemetary,” Safiya muttered, gesturing to the trees around them.

Matt squinted. “What are you looking at?”

“Over there,” Rosanna said, still pointing. “There’s people over there. Like, way in the back. Do you see them?”

He had to concentrate to figure out where Rosanna was looking, but Matt eventually saw the people she was talking about. There were three of them standing in a circle among the graves - two men and a woman. Matt couldn’t tell for sure, but their clothes didn’t look modern. The way they were standing made it seem like they were engaged in some sort of discussion. But Matt couldn’t hear anyone speaking, and they didn’t appear to be moving at all.

The mysterious people turned their heads to look up after a moment. It felt as though they were staring straight through the kids, and it was making them incredibly uncomfortable. Rosanna gripped Matt’s arm, and Safiya scooted closer to them.

“Guys?” Rosanna whispered.

“Maybe we should get going,” Matt said.

“Good idea,” Safiya agreed.

Matt gently shoved the girls ahead of him, and they took off again. It was already twilight, and the woods were getting increasingly dark. The trees were casting shadows of monsters that weren’t there, and it wasn’t helping the situation at all. Matt thought he was imagining it, but he could swear he felt some kind of presence behind him. It was getting closer and closer to the point where it felt like something was about to crawl up his back. Rosanna and Safiya quickened their pace, which probably meant that they could feel it, too. Matthew did the same.

Soon, the three of them were in a full on sprint through the woods, forcing branches out of their way and trying not to stumble over rogue tree roots. It became a cycle; the feeling would get stronger, and they would run faster. Throughout all of this, Matthew’s brain was repeating the same thoughts over and over.

_Keep running. Faster. It’s coming. Don’t stop. Don’t slow down. Don’t lose sight of your friends._

They ran until they were out of the woods and back in the main area of the park. There were more people around, which made them feel a little safer. Matt took a quick peek behind him to find that no one was following them.

“Guys!” Matt said breathlessly. “We can stop running now.”

They skidded to a halt near the park’s entrance and tried to calm their racing hearts. They had just a little bit of daylight left to spare.

“Crap,” Safiya eventually said with a sharp exhale. “I think I cut my arm on a branch or something.” She lifted up her arm and wiped off a tiny drop of blood with her finger.

Rosanna moved closer to get a look. “Are you gonna be okay?” she asked. Rosanna was the undisputed mom friend of the three of them. If anything was wrong with Matt or Safiya - anything at _all_ \- she would make sure they were okay.

Safiya smiled reassuringly. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. It’s nothing a little hydrogen peroxide and a band aid can’t fix.”

Now that they were safely out of the woods, the fear was replaced with an overwhelming feeling of relief. They laughed off the remaining adrenaline. How _ridiculous_ were they being? There was nothing to be afraid of.

“Come on,” Matt said. “I’ll drop you guys at home.” He led them to his car parked nearby.

They were safe. They were going to be okay. Matt knew that. Those people in the cemetery were probably just normal people visiting a dead family member or something. He kept telling himself that until he believed it, but that wasn’t until he went to bed a few hours later.

 

That night, the ten kids dreamed about being chased by something in the dark that they couldn’t see. Those dreams went on through the night, until they eventually dreamed a few mindless commercials. When they woke up the next morning, they forgot all about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: Buckle up everyone, it's a food fight!


	2. Lunch is Served

At lunch the following Friday, Joey was sitting with Manny and Nikita, as usual. The three of them were chatting amongst themselves, as usual.  They eventually got bored and decided to pass the time by trying to accurately throw their garbage away from a distance. Not quite as usual, but it sounded fun.

Manny was the first to take his hand at it. “Here we go... ” he said. He crumpled up a sandwich wrapper and tossed it basketball style. It bounced of the edge of the trash can, landed inside, and Manny let out a sharp, “Yes!”

Joey glanced around the cafeteria. “Just don’t let Ms. Wilson see you. You know how she gets whenever she catches someone doing _literally_ anything wrong.”

Janet Wilson, one of the civics teachers, was by definition, a huge effing bitch. Her son, Mortimer, taught at the school as well, and it baffled everyone how someone so cool and easygoing was related to someone as smug as her. (They also found it odd that she didn’t even look old enough to be his mom.) If she so much as found out a kid had whispered to a friend or dropped paper on the floor, she would give them a detention with a smile and a mental middle finger. Some of the students even suspected that she was a closeted racist.

“It’s fine, Joey,” Nikita assured him. “She’s not here right now. Anyway, my turn! Watch and learn, bitches.” She picked up a piece of lettuce from her salad and tossed it over to the bin. To her disappointment, the lettuce was too light to go very far, and it ended up on the floor. “Dammit,” she muttered.

They all laughed, and Joey decided to up the ante a bit.

“Alrighty,” Joey said. “How about this?” He shoved his plastic spoon into his sweet potatoes. “I bet ten bucks from both of you that I launch this into _that_ trash can over there.” He pointed at a trash can two tables behind them.

Nikita and Manny exchanged a quick glance, and Nikita decided to raise his wager. “In that case… twenty from you, as in ten for each of us, if you can’t.”

Joey chuckled. “Very well, ma’am.”

Joey turned around, pulled back on the spoon with his finger, and released. The potatoes flew over the first table successfully. Instead of landing in the garbage, however, they plopped straight down onto (of all _freaking_ people) Colleen Ballinger’s head.

 _Seriously, God?_ He thought. _Of all people, why did it have to land on her?!_

Colleen shrieked and stiffened up. Jc and Roi flinched, and Teala gasped. The commotion caused a bunch of other kids to glance their way.

Colleen leaped to her feet, and threw the food onto the ground. “Who threw that?!” she called. She scanned the area with narrowed eyes.

_Oh, no…_

Joey froze for a moment. Three years ago, Joey was separated from Colleen because of classes. He tried to keep talking to her and maintain their friendship, but it got harder and harder because of said classes. By now, Colleen probably already hated him as it was, and now his food was on her head. Not on purpose, of course. But it was still on her head.

He decided to just get it over with. “Colleen,” he said, “I’m so sorry! That wasn’t supposed to hit you, it was supposed to go in the trash.”

_There we go. Straight and to the point. It was an accident. She wouldn’t get mad over an accident, right?_

But that was exactly what happened. Colleen glared at him, clearly not happy about the true identity of the culprit. She grabbed her sandwich and threw it in their direction. Joey, Manny and Nikita ducked out of the way, and it just barely misses them. It _did_ , however, pelt Matpat in the back.

“Oh, God!” Matt cried out instinctively. Safiya gasped and Rosanna screamed. Some of the other students started laughing at the scene.

“Hey!” Matt yelled as he spun around to find the perpetrator.

“Sorry,” Colleen called. “That was for Joey over there. Pass it on.” She said ‘pass it on’ like she was talking about passing a note.

Rosanna balled her hand into a fist and pointed her other hand at Colleen. “I’ll pass _you_ on for throwing that at Matt!” she yelled. She then grabbed her fruit cup and threw it, but her aim fell short and it hit Joey in the face. He let out a yelp and stumbled back in his seat. “Sorry, Joey! Are you okay?!” Rosanna called, and she was back to her normal self.

Colleen, on the other hand, grinned a shit-eating grin and waved at Rosanna. “Thanks, Ro!”

Joey was a little surprised. From what he knew about Rosanna, she was the world’s biggest pacifist. He never thought such a tiny little human could be capable of holding any anger. He made a mental note to stay out of her way when someone pissed her off.

Suddenly, the others were getting involved. Nikita tossed a cucumber at Safiya. Matt threw a hotdog at Jc. Teala chucked a couple of fries at - well, yeah, you get the point.

Before anyone knew what was happening, even more kids joined in. Liza Koshy scooped up a fistful of grapes and screamed, “ _Yeet!_ ” as she hurled them across the mess hall. Alex Wassabi smothered mashed potatoes in Tyler Oakley’s hair. Timothy DeLaGhetto and Andrea Brooks flicked bits of salad back and forth at each other.

Nikita leaped up onto the table, cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed, “ _Food fight!_ ”

_Wait, what?!_

And it began. People started throwing food across the cafeteria like they were in the middle of a battlefield. Vegetables, deserts, sandwiches and more were flying through the air. Teenagers were screaming and laughing and running around like madmen. The whole scene felt like it had been ripped straight out of a movie.

Joey couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He actually started a food fight. An all-out food fight! If someone like Ms. Wilson found out, what was going to happen? Would he get detention? Suspension? What if he got expelled?

Manny grabbed his sandwich and threw it to his left with all his might, cackling like a hyena.

Nikita high-fived him. “ _Nice!_ ” she said.

Joey looked at his friends having fun and throwing food at other people and each other. Then he took the chaos around him. He realized that this really was literally every kid’s dream, and he thought of the fact that he started it in a different light.

_I actually started a food fight. An all-out food fight…_

He steadied himself and smiled excitedly at his friends. He didn’t even mind too much when someone’s spinach casserole hit him in the arm. He just surprised himself by laughing it off. He’d probably get in trouble just for being in the same building as this shitshow anyway. He figured he might as well make the most of it while he still could. He scooped up his sweet potatoes in one hand, a chunk of salad in another, and went at it.

 _Welp, I started this, so screw_   _it! I guess I’m in it for the long haul!_

 

Jc took a moment to analyze the situation, as he normally did. The cafeteria had just become an absolute warzone. Kids all over the cafeteria were throwing gross food at each other. He could make out a couple of sandwiches, peas, fries, a pudding cup - hold up. Was that an _entire lasagna_ that he just saw? It was complete pandemonium.

_Cool._

Jc wasn’t that bothered by it. Frankly, it would take a _lot_ to bother him. Maybe if a piano got involved, like, if someone somehow managed to throw it. Then it would be a _real_ problem. But it wasn’t. Not yet, anyway. Instead, he decided to do what he usually does: take the situation as it came to him.

_If problems come, they’ll come. Let’s just settle down and have some fun._

And it looked like his friends already had that covered. Roi unleashed a battle cry of “ _Whooooooooo!_ ” He picked up his buffalo wings one by one, threw them in random directions, and ran off screaming some more. Colleen and Teala both started laughing and joined in the chaos.

As for Jc, he had a strategy. He maneuvered almost effortlessly out of the way of any food that flew his way. He serpentined, bobbed and weaved, and lunged with ease. He picked up and threw food that he found on random tables, or just straight up caught them in midair. He had surprisingly good aim, and he ended up hitting DeStorm Power right in the face with someone’s bread roll at one point.

 _Easy as pie_ , he thought to himself as a slice of pie zipped past his head.

 

Teala did her best to duck and dodge, but there was already so much food all over the place! She was managing to throw plenty of food, but she kept getting hit with pretty much anything you could possibly find in a school cafeteria. One of those foods included some kind of slimy purple stuff that she thought was jello at first. (It wasn’t jello, in case you were wondering.)

She was trying to find someone she knew when she suddenly got hit in the forehead with an apple. She stumbled and landed on the floor, and it took her a moment to gather her bearings.

“Teala!” Colleen called out her name. “Teala!”

“Huh?!” Teala answered as she the shook off the blow from apple. It would probably leave a bruise later, but she was fine other than that

“Are you okay?!” Colleen yelled at her.

Teala tried to follow Colleen’s voice, and found her standing on top of a table a few meters away.

“Yeah!” she said. “I’m good!”

“Have you tried doing what Jc is doing?!”

“What?” Teala had lost track of Jc a little after this whole mess started.

 _What_ is _Jc doing?_

And then she saw him. His technique was the complete opposite of what _she_ was just doing. He was _completely_ spotless, and he was dodging food left and right like a ninja. Teala didn’t even think it was possible for anyone to have that kind of coordination.

_How are my friends so freaking cool?!_

Honestly, her friends were awesome. Jc was a master of zen. Roi was literally down for anything. Colleen brought so much energy to everything she did. But what about Teala? What could _she_ do? She was just… _her_.

Colleen motioned for her to come over. Teala kept her head down and ran for Colleen’s table, and her friend pulled her up when she got close enough.

“Wouldn’t this be easier on the ground?!” Teala asked, ducking as a bunch of cookies whizzed past them.

“Where’s the fun in _that_?” Colleen replied. She grabbed Teala’s hand and pulled her out of the way of a chunk of meatloaf. “Here, follow my lead.”

Teala watched for a moment as Colleen used a series of dance moves to avoid airborne food. Teala did her best to follow her, and it seemed to be working. The food didn’t hit them as much the more they moved, and they both hurled chunks of stuff whenever anything landed by their feet.

Colleen noticed a slice of pizza flying toward them. “Incoming on your right!” she yelled.

Teala followed her hand and caught the pizza. “Thanks, queen!” she told her, and threw it somewhere else.

Colleen’s eyes widened. “Woah! Nice one,” she said, and Teala felt a little better.

 _I guess_ that’s _something I can do: I have quick reflexes. That’s pretty cool._

 

When Safiya thought of an ideal Friday, she thought of the following: A peaceful day at school, finishing her homework or a draft for the Everlock Bulletin, maybe catching a movie or something with MatPat and Rosanna, and topping it all off by cuddling up with a good book as her cat napped in her lap.

 _This_ was not part of that equation. If disciplinary actions from school didn't get her first, disciplinary actions from her parents _definitely_ would. If she got involved in a food fight and they found out, they’d kill her!

“Matt! Ro!” she yelled. “Come on!” She grabbed her friends’ hands and hurried them behind a nearby table.

“Safiya, what’s wrong?” Rosanna asked between giggles.

“What’s _wrong_ ?” Safiya replied. “What’s wrong is that there’s a freaking _food fight_ going on!” She couldn't believe she had to explain this to them.

“Um, yes,” Matt said in a matter-of-fact tone, “and it’s kind of amazing! This is, like, everything I’ve wanted to do when I was a kid!”

“Yeah!” Rosanna chimed in. “My sister, Molly, and I talked about starting one all the time when we were little, but we’d always chicken out.”

Safiya sighed. Sometimes she felt like she was the only mature one between the three of them. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. During those times, it was more like she was a camp counselor who was getting sick of a couple of kids’ antics, but she still loved said kids anyway. Besides, the food fight would make a good story for the school paper. Maybe that was _one_ silver lining to it.

Safiya suddenly noticed that Matt was about to throw a handful of sloppy joes at her. She yelped and instantly ducked out of the way as he launched it. Unfortunately, Rosanna was right behind her. It hit her shoulder and slid down her sweater.

“Oh, shoot!” Matt cried out. “I’m so sorry, Ro!” But he couldn't stop himself from laughing.

“Ro, are you okay?” Safiya asked, trying to keep her composure. She had to admit that the look on Rosanna’s face was pretty funny.

Rosanna whirled in Matt’s direction. “Did you just get that… on my _outfit?!_ ” she screamed.

“I’m so sorry!” Matt repeated, but he was still laughing.

She stamped her foot. “Matthew Robert Patrick, _DIDYOUJUSTGETTHATONMYOUTFIT?!?!_ ”

Matt was wheezing now, and Safiya couldn’t contain herself anymore. Try as she might, Rosanna just wasn’t that great at being scary.

 

Rosanna couldn't _believe_ the nerve of these two. Her sweater was probably ruined, and they were both laughing! _Laughing_!

“Guys!” She cried out. “This is my _favorite_ sweater! There are sloppy joes! On my _favorite! Sweater!_ ” Her eyes lit up instantly, and she realized what that meant. “Wait… there are sloppy joes on my favorite sweater...”

Matt and Safiya stopped laughing and looked at each other. They must have known _exactly_ what Rosanna was thinking. She started laughing again. These two had just given her the perfect opportunity for revenge. She ran her hands through the sloppy joes and flung them about. The food flew off her hands and struck Matt and Safiya, causing them both to shriek and shield their faces.

That would probably be enough to get back at them. Honestly, though, Rosanna wasn't really that mad at them. She could never stay mad at them. She loved them too much. She figured she’d just hug it out with them later.

Matt grinned a nasty grin. “Oh, you’re going down, sister!”

Rosanna steadied herself. “Bring it on, brother!”

Safiya quickly ducked back down, and Rosanna couldn't help but feel a little disheartened. She and Matt have both mentioned before that they wished that Safiya wasn’t so serious all the time. Between classes, theatre and the school newspaper, Safiya always seemed to be on the clock. This seemed like a decent opportunity to help her loosen up a little and have some fun.

Matt gave Rosanna a sympathetic look that said, _It’s fine, at least we tried._

But Safiya popped back up after a moment. “I think I’ll take defense,” she told them. She started swiping at food that flew at the three of them when it was in her reach. She got some food on her in the process, but she didn’t give up.

_Well, I guess that’s a start. Good!_

“Cool! Keep doing that!” Rosanna encouraged her. She took the opportunity to throw a pickle at Matt.

“Hey!” Matt cried out, but he had a big, goofy smile on his face.

“That’s what happens when you get distracted, Matt!” she replied with an equally goofy grin.

They went back and forth throwing little pieces of food at each other, making sure they weren't big enough to hurt the other. Meanwhile, Safiya kept acting as their defense, swiping at food and lunging out of the way when something flew at her.

 

Roi was having the time of his life. He was running amok through the mess hall, whooping and shrieking like a maniac, scooping up any food he could find and chucking it in all directions. He was living out his childhood fantasy, and he was here for _all_ of it. After a little while, he decided to try his hand at doing one of those sliding-on-your-knees things that he’d seen rockstars do when he was a kid.

He bounced up and down, and got ready to make a running start. He was _totally_ ready for this. He was in his element. He psyched himself up.

_Here I go! I’m gonna do it! I’m doing it! YEAH!_

He took off running, but he slipped on a food-covered tray before he could get very far.

 _Well, there goes_ that.

Before Roi could fall flat on his back and embarrass himself too much, he instinctively grabbed hold of someone. His hand slipped and he accidentally pulled something off of them. He ended up catching himself on a stool, and straightened himself back up.

“Hey, sorry about that!” Roi started. “Are you-”

And then he realized what was in his hand: a long, blonde-haired wig.

_Wait, a wig?_

The person slowly turned around, and Roi was horrified to find himself staring into the cold, unforgiving eyes of Nikita Dragun: one of the resident troublemakers of Everlock High School.

And he was holding her wig.

The wig that he just accidentally yanked off her head.

_Oh, no…_

He suddenly wasn’t having fun anymore.

 

_What._

_The._

_Fuck._

_Did this boy just do._

Nikita was absolutely seething. _Beyond_ seething.

Did this guy _really_ just… no, he’d better not have. There was no way he’d be dumb enough to snatch her wig like that unless he had a deathwish. What was his name? Roi Something? Well, Roi Middle-Name Something was officially a dead man.

“I-I’m so, _so_ sorry!” Roi said. He shakily lifted up Nikita’s wig. “Um… here…”

Nikita swiped it back from him and slammed it onto her head. She adjusted it, but didn’t bother pulling out her phone to make sure it was back in its proper placement. She was too _pissed_ to focus on that right now.

“Umm…” Roi stuttered, and his voice was raised octave. “No hard feelings, right?” His smile was the smile of someone who knew damn well that they were about to get their ass kicked.

Something that felt like mashed potatoes slammed against Nikita’s temple, but she didn’t care. “ _Bitch!_ ” she shrieked, and she charged at Roi.

Roi immediately turned around and ran in the opposite direction, screaming like a little girl. She didn’t even know what she was going to do to that guy, but she was going to make sure that it _wouldn’t_ be fun.

 

Matt was still tossing bits of food back and forth at Rosanna. They both laughed as they tried and failed to avoid getting struck by each other. They occasionally took a break to throw food in a direction where something hit one of them. Safiya mostly dodged and swatted at anything that came her way, but it didn’t stop her from getting hit by the wild barrage of food every so often. Matt even noticed that mysterious purple stuff stuck to Safiya’s pant leg.

He’d kept telling himself to do some kind of research project on that stuff one of these days. He had a good number of theories as to what it might be. Maybe he’d give his findings to the school newspaper, or upload it to YouTube or something.

Matt was so busy switching between throwing food at Rosanna and throwing food at random people, that he wasn’t really paying attention to who he was hitting. Some faces stood out: Oli White, Gabbie Hanna and Lauren Riihimaki to name a few.

Something eventually caused the girls to freeze and stare at something behind him.

“Matt..?” Rosanna squeaked.

He turned around. Sure enough, Wilmer Jones was towering over him. From freshman year onward, he’d made a name for himself as one of the most intimidating bullies of their entire high school career. His shirt was covered with tomato sauce - the tomato sauce that probably belonged to the pizza that Matt haphazardly threw a minute ago.

_Oh… oh, no…_

“Hey, Wilmer,” Matt said meekly. “I’m, uh, I’m really sorry about that.”

“You think this is funny, Poindexter?” Wilmer said, throwing in his typical insult that he used for Matt. 'Poindexter' was his term for people who would otherwise be referred to as ‘nerds.’ “You got shit all over my shirt!”

“What’s your problem?” Rosanna asked. “ _Everyone’s_ covered in food.”

“Yeah,” Safiya added. “Back off, dude.”

But Wilmer wasn’t listening. He grabbed the collar of Matt’s jacket, and stared him down. Matt wanted to move, to push him away, to run, to do _something_. But he was too scared to do lift a finger.

“You ready to die, Poindexter?” Wilmer growled.

“No!” Rosanna cried out. She rushed over and repeatedly slammed her fists against Wilmer’s back, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything.

Safiya followed her example. “Get away from him!” she yelled, and she started tugging on his arm as hard as she could.

Wilmer turned around without letting go of Matt, and shoved the girls aside. “Piss off, bitches!” They stumbled to the ground.

“Hey!” Matt yelled. “Leave my friends alone!”

Wilmer glared back at Matt. “What’re you gonna do, pipsqueak?”

Matt braced himself for the beating that was about to come. He could already see his obituary:  _Matthew Patrick. Age 16. Beaten to death at school by a big, stupid jock during a food fight._

 

Manny was all down to get a little dirty every once in a while, and he was having a great time with this whole food fight thing. But here was the tea: his makeup was too _cute_ today! It had taken him almost half an hour to perfect that morning, and he didn't plan on messing it up. He held his tray up to his face as a shield to avoid any serious damage.

It suddenly occurred to him that Joey and Nikita weren’t with him anymore. He dropped his tray for a moment, scanning the area for them. Suddenly, something else caught his attention. Wilmer Jones was towering over Matthew Patrick, and Rosanna Pansino and Safiya Nygaard were trying to break them up. Manny didn’t know them too well. He kind of knew MatPat because they’d had biology together before. He knew that all three of them were in theatre because of what Matt told him, but that was it. Even so, he wasn’t about to let an innocent guy get pummeled by a bully like Wilmer.

Manny rushed over as fast as he could. He leaped up onto the table, grabbed a discarded ham-and-cheese sandwich, chucked it at Wilmer and _WHAM!_ The sandwich rammed into Wilmer’s face, and he stumbled over and dropped Matt. The girls rushed over and pulled their friend back to his feet.

“That’s what you get, bitch!” Manny said. “That’s what you _get!_ ”

When the others straightened themselves up, Matt gave Manny a quick, “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome!” Manny replied. “Now, run before he gets back up!”

They did what he said. He watched for a moment as the three of them ran off, shielding each other through the fray of nasty-ass cafeteria food.

Wilmer pushed himself back up, holding his stupid, ugly face. “What the hell is your _problem_ , princess?” he asked Manny.

“My ‘problem’ is that you suck and I hate you,” Manny said matter-of-factly.

Wilmer glared at him. “What did you say, you little-”

“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size?” Manny snapped.

“Like you?”

Wilmer tried to throw a punch, but Manny hurled himself out of the way. The bully then climbed on top of the table, and Manny took the opportunity to throw a slice of pizza at him. Manny wasn’t really a physical fighter, but given that there was already a food fight going on, he figured he could make an acception if he just kept throwing food at Wilmer. Plus, if push came to shove, he was pretty strong. He could probably bend a couple more rules today. Only if he _had_ to, of course.

 

Colleen obviously wasn’t perfectly clean anymore, but she didn’t think she was doing so badly. She was doing her best to take after Jc, and Teala was taking after her by the looks of it. Everything else was coming from the years of dance lessons she took as a kid. It helped that she recently picked her lessons back up, but she never thought she’d use them for _this_ . Not that she was complaining. As for Roi, she didn't know where he disappeared to. Wherever he was, though, Colleen was sure he was having a great time. She knew _she_ was, even if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named started it.

Speaking of which, he was _right there_ when she turned around. She was dumbfounded when she met the bright eyes of Joey Graceffa, the man of the hour. Her smile faltered.

“Hey, Colleen,” he said, giving her a weak wave.

Colleen folded her arms. “I’m not talking to you.”

Joey stopped smiling, too. “Well, _that’s_ not new,” he muttered under his breath, but Colleen heard it.

“ _You’re_ one to talk!” she retorted. “God, are you really _that_ much of a hypocrite?!”

“What are you talking about, Colleen?!” Joey yelled. Colleen couldn't decide whether he looked miserable or exasperated. “We used to be friends!”

A couple slices of pizza pelted Colleen and fell to the ground. She quickly swiped them up, gave him one last glare and asked, “Then where were you when I _needed_ you?!”

She didn’t bother waiting for an answer. She shoved him, pizza in hand, staining his shirt with tomato sauce and grease. The force caused Joey to stumble backwards, and he lost his balance and fell off the table. Everything inside Colleen was screaming at her to make sure he was okay, but the stubborn part of her made sure she was glued to the table.

She couldn't believe how angry at him that she was after all these years. She’d just been having a good time dodging and throwing food with her friend. She was having _fun_. Now she was pissed at him, and she was sad because she just talked to him, and she was feeling all of those stupid, spiteful feelings.

She hated feeling that way. She _hated_ it. She hated _him_.

_And I miss him._

And then she hated _herself_ for thinking that.

All of a sudden, the sound of an air horn blared through the cafeteria, and a woman’s sharp voice yelled, “ _DESIST!_ ” Her voice echoed throughout the building, and the food fight ceased to an abrupt halt.

Colleen’s anger quickly gave way to mind-numbing fear.

 

Joey landed flat on his back, and he pushed himself to sit back up. Fortunately, he wasn’t badly hurt. Unfortunately, he had just a good enough view to find out where the voice came from. Sure enough, it belonged to Janet “Huge Effing Bitch” Wilson. Her normally smug face was replaced with a look of pure, unadulterated fury.

It got worse when someone yelled, “Not today, Janet!” and a ketchup and mustard-clad hotdog struck her white button-down blouse. What little chatter that could still be heard went silent immediately. The entire cafeteria was in a still, silent panic.

 _This is it_ , Joey thought. _This is where we all die. I bequeath everything I hold dear to my dogs._

Ms. Wilson inhaled deeply and loudly through her nose and screamed, “Who is responsible for this?!”

Joey took in his surroundings, and somehow, everyone who technically started the food fight was bunched together. Manny had a fistful of spaghetti poised to throw at Wilmer Jones, who fell over and pretended to be unconscious. Matt and Rosanna were covered head-to-toe in food, and the same went for Teala. Nikita seemed to have just managed to catch Roi in a headlock, and she quickly let go, causing him to fall to the ground. Safiya poked her head out from under a table, and despite her best efforts, some traces of food got in her hair and on her clothes. Colleen was still on her table, and she was still holding the pizza slices. An otherwise spotless Jc discovered a fresh mustard stain on his shirt, and he stared down at it with a look of intense, prolonged disappointment.

All eyes were on them. Ms. Wilson stared them all down like a lioness sizing up her prey. All ten of them were completely frozen in a state of shock and embarrassment.

Joey groaned and let himself fall back onto the floor. His head plopped down into a pile of purple stuff, and it all got in his hair. He didn't get back up that time. He just lay there, staring at the ceiling, wishing whatever the hell that purple stuff was would come to life and swallow him whole.

_Fan. Damn. Tastic._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was so much fun to write!! I was honestly a little sad when I finished.  
> I kinda want to animate this chapter with the song "Aim for Me" playing in the background Max Keeble style one of these days.
> 
> Next time: The group gets a chance to officially meet each other in detention. Aaaand some tea gets spilled.


	3. "De-Tension"

There were so many punishments given after the food fight, that it was almost impossible to keep track of them all. Almost everyone in who was in the cafeteria was sent home for the day. It wasn’t a problem for Nikita, who thought of it as a “permitted leave.” A few kids were suspended for insinuating violence, including Wilmer Jones, much to Manny’s delight. A large sum kids were given after school detention. As for Joey, Roi, Colleen and the others, they were all sentenced to Saturday detention followed by a week of after school detention.

Ms. Wilson had argued that their punishment should be more severe because they started it. Thankfully, Calliope, one of the theatre teachers, vouched for them. Some of the students were a little intimidated by her, but she was pretty cool according to students in her class - like Matt, Safiya and Rosanna. She even insisted that her students call her by her first name.

Instead of suspension, Calliope had managed to convince the principal to give them all one Saturday detention to help the janitor clean the cafeteria, followed by after school detention. Not exactly a break, but it was the best she could manage. The kids were grateful, but they weren’t exactly looking forward to cleaning up the mess the next day.

 

Joey was waiting with the others outside the cafeteria at 8:45 the next morning. The pale morning light was shining across the campus. Almost everyone was there except for three of them.

Joey was passing the time by kicking a pebble back and forth with Manny. A very irritated Safiya was venting to Rosanna, who was nodding intently. Jc was playing with a yoyo, and Roi was observing in fascination. Colleen was nodding her head to a song she was listening to from her earbuds. They all carried the same general demeanor of displeasure about their situation.

“Cheery bunch,” Manny remarked sarcastically.

“I mean, can you blame them?” Joey replied. “None of us want to be here right now, but we are anyway. And it’s all because I dropped food in Colleen’s hair. I’m just sorry I got you and Nikita roped into this.”

Manny placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t beat yourself up, Joey. It’s okay. I mean, my makeup didn’t get trashed, so no hard feelings from me at least.”

“Thanks, Manny,” Joey said. That was probably a good thing. His makeup had looked awesome.

Matt arrived a little before the clock struck nine, stuffing a blue Game Boy Advance into his back pocket. Teala followed a few minutes later, and Joey could see an ugly, dark bruise on her forehead. Nikita finally showed up about five minutes after nine.

“There you are, girl,” Manny said, pulling her into a hug.

“Sorry I’m late,” Nikita said drowsily. Her natural dark brown hair was tied up in a messy bun. She must not have wanted to mess up another one of her wigs while they were cleaning their mess.

“What kept you?” Joey asked her.

“Nothing,” she replied, moving over to hug Joey. “I just _really_ didn’t feel like waking up this early.” Nikita usually slept in until at least 2PM on Saturdays.

The fact that Nikita had detention didn’t really bother her. She’d had enough detentions to not be intimidated by the idea at that point. Jc didn’t seem to care too much either, but something told Joey that it wasn’t because he was used to getting detention. As for the others, they weren’t happy with their situation at all. Frankly, Joey didn’t blame them. He couldn’t help but feel partially responsible for the food fight. Okay, maybe _entirely_ responsible, considering those were _his_ sweet potatoes that he tried to toss across the cafeteria.

Yeah. He _was_ entirely responsible.

The janitor arrived ten minutes later and unlocked the glass doors. He had a very distinct mustache and his name was Jerry according to the little name tag sewn onto his uniform.

_Jerry the Janitor. Nice alliteration._

“Alright,” Jerry said. “In. All of you.” He was clearly just as unhappy to be there as everyone else, if not more so. _He_ was the one responsible for cleaning the school on a daily basis, after all. “You’re all gonna be spending the next eight hours helping me clean this place. Maybe this’ll teach all of you to mess up a perfectly clean building. And you’d better get used to each other’s company. From what I’ve heard, you’ll be spending a lot of time together.”

Joey knew Manny, Nikita and Colleen, but that was about it. He only knew the names of everyone else. After their visit to the office yesterday, he wasn’t too sure how eager everyone was to “get used to each other’s company.”

 _Well, it’s called “de-tension” for a reason_ , Joey thought to himself, cringing at his own pun. _This is gonna be a_ long _day._

 

Manny filed inside with everyone else. Once they entered the cafeteria, he saw the damage that they’d caused. Some of it was probably cleaned last night, but the place was still an absolute mess.

Teala slumped her shoulders. “Oh, fuck me upside down with a waffle iron,” she muttered.

He couldn’t agree with her more. _He_ wasn’t liking what he was seeing either.

The floor and tables were littered with garbage, trays and food. The walls were painted with sloppy joes, tomato sauce and dried beverages. The back wall of the building was basically a giant window, and the sunlight peeking inside was blocked in places with blotches of food. Some of the garbage cans had been tipped over, and trash had spilled out.

 _Honey, this is_ not _cute._

Nikita sighed. “I’m _so_ glad I didn’t bring a wig today,” she said.

“But you’re glad you brought one _yesterday?_ ” Manny asked with a smirk.

Nikita shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Jerry gestured around the building; “See this? You all caused this mess. You’re gonna help clean it up whether you like it or not. Nobody goes home until four this afternoon, capiche?”

Everyone replied with a halfhearted chorus of “yes.”

“We’re gonna break a nail doing this, huh?” Manny whispered to Nikita and Joey.

“Oh, multiple,” Joey concurred, who was taking one last look at his own recently manicured nails. They were crystal tips, too. Poor thing.

Nikita just shrugged. “I mean, _these_ are reinforced acrylics.”

Safiya silenced them with a sharp, “Shh!” She fixed them with a death glare for good measure.

Manny shuddered. _Okay,_ he thought. _Don’t piss off Morticia, got it._

Come to think of it, didn’t he save her friend from getting beaten into a pile of mashed potatoes the day before? What was with the sudden sass?

 

Between the ten of them, Rosanna knew they didn’t all contribute to the _entire_ mess. During the food fight, she’d stuck in her little corner of the cafeteria with her friends. She herself probably didn’t do too much damage, other than when she and Matt had tossed food back at someone in a random direction. Despite knowing this, she couldn’t help but feel guilty. Poor Jerry had probably spent hours just getting started cleaning the night before.

“We’re really sorry, sir,” Roi told Jerry. He must have been thinking the same thing.

“Yeah,” Rosanna agreed. “We didn’t mean-”

But Jerry cut her off. “You kids think this is some kind of playground? Do you think I _wanted_ to be a janitor? _No!_ No, I didn’t. But now I’m stuck here cleaning up after a bunch of spoiled teenagers!”

“Sorry,” she muttered.

She was close to tears. Rosanna _hated_ hurting people. Safiya placed her right arm around her shoulders, and Matt squeezed her hand reassuringly. She smiled at them gratefully.

There was a set of sponges, rags, spray bottles and buckets of soapy water lined up on one of the tables.

Jerry gestured to the cleaning supplies. “Everyone, take something and get to work. The sooner we start, the sooner everyone gets out of here.”

The group did as they were told. Rosanna grabbed a rag and a bottle of glass cleaner. Once everyone got what they needed, they split up into their respective groups and got to work. Joey, Manny and Nikita went off in one direction. Jc, Roi, Teala and Colleen went in another. Rosanna, Matt and Safiya stayed behind for a moment.

“How are you guys feeling?” Rosanna asked them. She could get the sense that they were both just as unhappy about being here as she was.

Safiya shook her head, spray bottle and rag in hand. “I’ve never gotten detention. _Never._ Not _once_.”

Matt picked up a bucket and sponge. “I know. This whole situation sucks.”

Rosanna pulled her friends into a hug. She always appreciated any comfort they gave her when she was upset, but she knew they couldn’t take care of her all the time. She didn’t like it when they were angry or sad. They deserved comfort, too.

When they broke apart, Safiya tucked her dark hair behind her ears and said, “I’m gonna go start with the windows back there. You guys wanna come with?”

“Sure,” Matt replied. “It’ll be nice to at least get some more light in here.”

“Yeah,” Rosanna agreed. “Maybe we’ll all feel better once we get to work.”

They started for the windows, and Rosanna glanced around at their cleaning buddies. Even though everyone seemed to be off doing their own thing with their own people, Rosanna still hoped that they’d all get a chance to talk to each other while they worked.

_Who knows? Maybe we’ll all be friends by the end of this._

 

Teala felt a pulsing soreness on her forehead where her bruise was. She rubbed a spot close to the pain, trying to avoid touching it. It still hurt, but she couldn’t touch her bruise directly or else it would make it worse.

“You okay, hun?” Colleen asked. “That thing looks like a whopper.”

“It is,” Teala confirmed. “Don’t worry about it. It’ll go away in a week or so.”

Roi waved over at Jerry, who was mopping the floor on the other side of the cafeteria. “Excuse me! Can we get an ice pack?”

“No,” Jerry replied without looking up.

“But my friend has a bruise on her forehead,” Roi explained. “Can't we just-”

“I don’t care.”

Teala sighed in annoyance. _Just my luck. The only adult in here, and he doesn’t care about a kid’s injury._

Roi dunked his sponge into a fresh bucket of water, rung it out, and handed it to her.

“Here you go,” he said. “It’s not ice, but the water is cold, so…”

She took the sponge and eased it over her bruise. There was still a little water left and it almost dripped down into her eye. But the cold helped ease the pain a little bit.

“Thanks, Roi,” she told him.

“I gotcha, buddy.”

Teala couldn’t help but smile. In comparison to Colleen and Jc (who were the mom and dad friends respectively), Roi reminded her of an excited little brother. He was always ready to dive headfirst into a situation, and he wanted to help everyone whenever he could.

Colleen took the opportunity to do what she does best. “ _Roi and Teala sittin’ in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-_ ah!” Her song was cut off when Roi flicked water at her.

Colleen would sometimes tease Roi and Teala about how good of a couple they’d be. It was a little embarrassing, but Teala never really took it personally.

“No,” Roi said. “Bad Colleen. Bad.” He kept flicking water at a giggling Colleen like she was a misbehaving dog.

“That’s it,” Jc asserted, “you’re all grounded.”

“What?” Teala laughed. “I wasn’t even doing anything!”

That got Jerry’s attention. “No horseplay over there!”

They stopped abruptly. Roi dried his hand on his shirt, and Colleen brushed the droplets off her face. It struck Teala as a little odd that Jerry got stirred up over horseplay, but didn’t bat an eye if someone was injured. She figured that he definitely shouldn’t have been put in charge of a bunch of kids for eight hours.

 

Roi picked up a little garbage bag and got back to work. It sucked that they were stuck doing this, but it was better than suspension in the long run. Besides, it was kinda their fault. This was the least they could do to atone.

He glanced around the cafeteria at his fellow students. He realized he didn’t really know many of the others. If he really _was_ going to be spending a lot of time with them, he figured he might as well get to know them. It couldn’t hurt, right?

He approached Manny, who was wiping down one of the tables, and stuck out his hand. “Hi! I’m Roi.”

Manny took his hand and shook it. “I’m Manny. Nice to meet you.”

_Okay, we’re shaking hands and telling each other our names. Off to a good start!_

“I don’t think I saw you in the food fight yesterday,” Roi said. “Where were you?”

“I actually didn’t pay too much attention. I started off with my friends, then I was using a tray as a shield to keep my makeup safe. I ended up throwing stuff at Wilmer Jones after he was trying to hurt MatPat over there.”

“Woah! You fought Wilmer Jones?!”

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘fought.’” Manny sniffed confidently and brushed some imaginary dust off of his shoulder. “All the food I threw at him _did_ give him a run for his money, though.”

“That is so _freakin’_ cool!”

Roi almost did a backflip from surprise and amazement. Standing up to a bully - especially someone like Wilmer? That was the coolest thing Roi’s heard all week! He liked Manny already.

“Well, thank you,” Manny said. “What about you? Where were _you_ when all that was going down yesterday?”

“Oh, I was all over the place, man! I mean, I wasn’t fighting bullies or anything, but it was still awesome! I was running around and throwing food and it was so much fun! Well, it _was_ until I accidentally pulled off Nikita’s wig. But before that, it was-”

“Hold up.” Manny raised his hand. “You did _what_?”

Is if on cue, Nikita approached from behind Manny. “Hey, Manny? Do you know if we have any more rags?” Her face morphed into an ruffled frown. “Oh. It’s _you_.”

That was the moment Roi had been dreading, mostly because it would likely lead to his untimely demise. The thing was, he still felt bad about ripping off her wig like he did. Maybe they could just talk it out.

“Hey, Nikita,” Roi said. “I, uh… I see you’re not wearing a wig today.”

Nikita stared straight into Roi’s soul. “No. No, I’m not. That’s because I didn’t want anything to _happen_ to it this time.”

_Okay, not the best way to start an apology on my part._

“I’m still _really_ sorry about your wig,” Roi continued. “It really was an accident.”

“Bitch,” Manny said, “you do _not_ just snatch my girl’s wig and get away with it.”

Nikita glared at him. “Do you know what happens if you snatch a girl’s wig? They snatch back. _Harder. Much_ harder.”

Roi didn’t know what she meant by that, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out.

Colleen took this opportunity to defend Roi. “Hey, leave him alone,” she said.

“This isn’t any of your business,” Manny told her.

Colleen retorted. “It _is_ my business when a couple of Regina George rejects are messing with my buddy.”

“Back off, Dancing Queen,” Nikita threatened, “or would you rather I _make_ you back off?”

Roi balled his hands into fists at his sides. His fear was instantly replaced with a strong feeling of protectiveness for his friend.

“Hey,” he asserted, “talk to _me_ however you want, but _no one_ treats my friends like that!”

Maybe getting to know them was out of the question after all.

  
Jc could usually tell when shit was about to hit the fan, and he could already sense that there was about to be a fight from a mile away. Maybe not a physical one, but there would at least be a lot of yelling. He wasn’t down for that.

He approached them to try and intervene. “Okay, guys, break it up. Fighting isn’t going to solve anything. Let’s all just take a breath and work this out, okay?”

Detention was a pretty crappy situation, sure, but it wouldn’t be forever. He didn’t want any more drama than there had to be.

Unfortunately, things didn’t always work out that way.

“You know what, Shaggy?” Nikita said. “I don’t want to hear another word from you, or the Dancing Queen, or the Wig Thief, or _anybody_ in here for that matter.”

 _But nobody else even said anything yet_ , Jc thought.

“You can’t talk to us like that,” Colleen said. “Who do you think you are?”

Nikita, resting bitch face and all, spat, “I’m the bitch who’s about to knock your ass to the ground, honey.”

Colleen chuckled. “You _seriously_ wanna fight me?”

Granted, Colleen was a little taller than Nikita, if only by a few inches. Her list of advantages ended there, though. Colleen normally wasn’t the punching-and-kicking-fighting type. She also wasn’t exactly the first person Jc would call if he needed to fight some guys in an alley… or to carry a heavy sack of flour for that matter. It honestly astonished him how Colleen was able to shove Joey off of a table the previous day. There was also the fact that they were still in detention, which was usually the worst place to pick a fight because it would only mean more problems. Besides, Nikita once broke someone’s nose when they were all in middle school for stealing her pencil case. He liked Colleen better with her face fully intact, thank you very much.

Jc decided he might as well not give up trying to defuse the situation. “Alright, alright, guys. That’s enough. _Nobody’s_ fighting _anyone_. I don’t want anyone breaking any bones today. Besides, if you two start punching each other’s lights out, we’ll only end up in more trouble.”

“He’s right guys,” Matt called out from the other side of the room. “Let’s all just be smart and get this over with.”

Jc appreciated the help, but it didn’t seem to work.

Manny turned his attention to Matt. “Were we talking to you, sir?”

“No,” Matt replied. “But whatever all of _you_ do, the rest of us will get in trouble for, too. I’m just making sure you don’t try anything stupid to dig us even deeper.”

Teala retorted, “Who are you, our mom?”

_Oh boy, here we go._

The situation was getting out of hand quickly. Too quickly to put an immediate stop to it. Jc was, once again, _not_ down for that.

 

Nikita wasn’t having any of this Jc guy’s hippie dippie nonsense. And she _certainly_ wasn’t about to have any bullshit from these other idiots.

“Look,” she spat. “ _I_ wasn’t the only person who instigated that whole thing, alright? Nor was I one of the first ones to actually _throw_ stuff at the rest of you. Dancing Queen over here was the one who actually starting throwing stuff at people on purpose. Small Fry, too.”

“Hey!” Matt exclaimed. He probably knew who she was talking about.

“I’m sorry again, Joey!” Rosanna, AKA “Small Fry” yelled.

“It’s okay, Ro!” Joey replied. “Nikita, look, I’m the one who started it. Maybe we should all just-”

But Nikita brushed him off. “Point being, I was just going along with what everyone else was already doing. I have no more responsibility for it than any of you.”

Matt put his hands on his hips. “Weren’t you _literally_ the one who screamed ‘food fight’ at the top of her lungs?”

Nikita was very tempted to throw MatPat into a trash can. “Like I said, smartass,” she snapped, “shit was already hitting the fan. It wouldn’t have mattered.”

Matt continued. “Well, like I said, the fact that you _screamed_ it didn’t help either.”

“Did it look like I was trying to stop it? Sorry if I was trying to encourage everyone else to have a good time.”

Colleen spread out her arms. She was holding a dirty sponge in her left hand. “Is _this_ your idea of a good time?!” she exclaimed. “We’re all in detention!”

Manny joined in, which Nikita appreciated. “You didn’t seem too angry when you and your friend were dancing your asses off on one of the tables.”

“I have a _name_ , dude,” Teala spat, but she flinched after Manny eyed her.

Nikita remembered passing Colleen and Teala as she was chasing Roi. They were indeed “dancing their asses off” as Manny said. Not to mention they were _smiling_. What was the problem there, exactly?

“Well,” Colleen said, “as fun as it was yesterday, we’re all stuck _here_ now!”

Teala spoke up again. “Not to mention there’s a _bruise_ on my forehead!” She lifted up the sponge and pointed at said bruise.

Nikita turned her attention to Teala. “The fact that you have sucky depth perception is _not_ my fault, honey,” she said, pointing at her own forehead. The look on Teala’s face was almost enough to make Nikita laugh. Almost.

“Hey!” Matt yelled. “Not cool!”

“What’s your problem?!” Colleen exclaimed. “You know what? I take back what I just said. You’re not a Regina George reject. You’re even more obnoxious and stuck up than _she_ is! Seriously, here I was thinking that was impossible.”

“At least _I_ wasn’t the one who threw a sandwich at some random nerd, sweetheart,” Nikita retorted.

Nikita didn’t know who any of these people were, but she was already _over_ them. She couldn’t wait for the next week to be over so she would never have to see them again.

 

Joey wasn’t liking where this was going. He decided to follow Jc’s example and try to defuse the situation.

“Guys, just stop!” Joey yelled, not really knowing how to defuse a situation.

Needless to say, they refused to listen.

 _I did_ not _sign up for this._

 

Matt felt the need to finish his piece about Nikita’s insult to his unofficial sister. “Hold on, back up a second. ‘Small Fry,’ Nikita?”

Nikita shrugged. “What? She’s small, look at her. She looks, like, twelve.”

Matt was even more irritated than he had been when he’d gotten up to leave that morning. It was one thing when people picked on him, but it was another when someone made fun of Rosanna. Now that Nikita was trying to pull that, it was a whole other can of worms.

“Matt, it’s okay,” Rosanna said. “I _am_ small.”

She put her hand on Matt’s arm in an attempt to calm him down, but Matt didn’t feel like calming down. Rosanna might have been okay, but he was too angry about everything else about the situation.

“Look,” he said, “I’m just as mad as all of you, but you’re all making it worse by acting like idiots.” He’d hardly noticed that he was raising his voice as well.

Roi snapped, “Well, the fact that you’re all here with us would only mean _you’ve_ been acting like idiots, too.”

Safiya was trying to scrape some dried pudding off the windows next to Matt. She didn’t say a word, but he could tell her shoulders were tensing up. He didn’t really blame her for staying quiet; she normally wouldn’t touch a fight with a ten foot pole. This kind of tension felt different, though. He didn’t know if she was staying quiet because she was nervous about drama, or if she was getting irate.

Matt folded his arms. “Ro and Safiya and I stayed in the same place pretty much the entire time. Even if some of this is from us, which I’m aware it _is_ , ours was less damaging if you do the math.”

“Hold on,” Teala said. “I saw you guys running through the building at least twice. That sounds pretty reckless if you ask me. Care to explain _that?_ ”

Safiya finally spoke up. “For your information, I was trying to pull them somewhere away from the fray the first time.”

Matt added, “We were doing our own thing until Wilmer showed up and ruined it. _That’s_ why we were running the second time around.”

“Guys, please,” Rosanna said. “This isn’t helping.”

Manny put his hands on his hips. “Wasn’t _I_ the one who _saved_ your asses from from Wilmer? And wasn’t he trying to beat you up for ‘doing your own thing?’”

Matt rolled his eyes. “Technically yes, but you don’t have to have such an attitude about it, Manny.”

“I’m just saying, you could have gotten beaten to a pulp if it weren’t for me.”

“And I already thanked you. _I’m_ just saying, if you keep rubbing it in, it just makes you look like an overzealous jerk.”

Nikita jumped in. “Would you rather have gotten your damn lights punched out, than have him save your asses?”

“At this point? Probably,” Matt answered. He wasn’t sure if he meant it or not, but he didn’t care.

It wasn’t that Matt wasn’t grateful that Manny helped them. He _was_ . But he wasn’t liking Manny’s overly confident angle about it. It certainly wasn’t helping that Nikita was encouraging it.

Manny said, “Well, I’ll be sure to keep that in mind next time Wilmer decides to be an ass, then.”

“Fine with me,” Matt replied.

“Fine,” Manny spat.

“Wonderful.”

“Fabulous.”

“Splendiferous.”

Matt wanted to scream his throat out into a pillow.

 

Colleen was getting tired of everything about their situation. She didn’t even want to be there to begin with. The only reason they _were_ there was because of Joey.

“You guys wanna know why we’re _really_ here?” she asked everyone, and gestured at Nikita, Manny and Joey. “Because the Plastic Wannabes over here thought it would be a good idea to throw food across the cafeteria. Not to mention the fact that _Joseph_ was the one who threw his food at me first.”

Joey flinched a little when Colleen said “Joseph.” She knew damn good and well that his parents used to call him that when they were mad at him. She felt a smug sense of satisfaction, hoping that it stung.

“Well, Colleen,” Matt added, “you’re just as much at fault as the rest of us. I mean, _you_ were the one who threw a sandwich at me.”

“I’m _sorry_ ,” Colleen spat. “It was an _accident_ . I was aiming for _Joey_.”

“Okay, I’m literally _right_ here!” Joey called.

“Bitch.” Colleen snapped her head towards him. “Does it look like I care?” Any patience she’d had earlier that morning flew out the window a long time ago.

“Guys, come on,” Jc said. “Joey and Ro are right. This is getting out of hand.”

If this were any normal day, Colleen would probably listen to Jc’s advice, take a breath, calm down, and maybe drink a glass of water. But it wasn’t a normal day. She and her friends were stuck in Saturday detention with a bunch of other people she barely knew. And one of those people happened to be the one who’d started the very _reason_ they were in detention. She didn’t feel like listening to anyone, let alone Jc, today. It felt too good when she was letting everything out.

 _Hang on, did he just say Joey was_ right _?!_

“Well, accident or not,” Matt continued, “maybe you shouldn’t have even _done_ that.”

Colleen leaned forward against the table. “Maybe _you_ should just get over it because _I_ already apologized. _Twice,_  if you count just now, actually.” She eyed Nikita. Maybe _she_ could do with that advice, too.

“Right,” Safiya said, rolling her eyes. “Because ‘get over it’ is the _best_ way to apologize to someone.”

Colleen turned her attention to Safiya, who was being oddly quiet throughout the whole thing. “Well, what about _you_ , Morticia?” Colleen asked her. “Anything to add to any of this since you decided to open your mouth?”

 

Safiya had _no idea_ what she was doing. Normally, she would never do this in a million years. Whenever drama reared its ugly head, she’d just mentally retreat into a turtle shell and pretend she didn’t exist until everyone stopped screaming at each other. This time, though, her Bullshit Meter was going off the charts. If there was one thing she hated almost as much as drama, it was bullshit. And that was exactly what this was to her: a giant pile of bullshit that someone shoved into her face. And she was ready to smack it out of the hands of the person giving it to her so hard that it crossed the state border.

That’s why, for once, Safiya didn’t hold her tongue. “You want to know what I have to ‘add’ to this? I just wanted to clean up our mess quickly and quietly, then go home to finish my history paper. But nope! That’s not going to happen, is it?”

“Head’s up, everyone,” Manny said. “Looks like Matt’s not the only smartass in here.”

“Look,” Safiya spat, “I didn’t even want any part of this.” She pointed at Colleen. “ _She’s_ the one who dragged me into this conversation.”

Colleen folded her arms. “And yet you continue to respond.”

Safiya knew she should listen to her better judgement and keep her mouth shut, but she was too infuriated to stop talking. She gestured towards Matt and Rosanna. “You know what?! At least the three of _us_ weren’t acting like complete lunatics yesterday! What exactly were the _rest_ of you doing? I mean, Roi over there was running around, screaming like a neanderthal and - quite _literally_ _(!)_ \- snatching wigs for _one_ thing.”

Roi spoke up. “I prefer the term, ‘Daredevil,’ please and thank you.”

“Stop fighting, guys!” Rosanna yelled, but they still weren't listening.

“Oh, okay,” Colleen snapped at Safiya. “So now you get to put yourself on a moral high ground because you’re such a good little bean who _never_ gets in trouble. Is that right, Princess Perfect?”

“ _Princess Perfect!?_ ” Safiya shrieked.

_Okay, that’s it. They wanna pick fights so badly? Fine._

 

Before Joey realized it, everyone was yelling. He, Jc and Rosanna were the only ones trying to calm everyone down, but no one was listening to them. Their quiet morning of cleaning had turned into a chaotic outburst of rage and frustration. Jerry was listening to all of this from the other side of the cafeteria, and something told Joey that he was trying not to snap his mop in half and scream, “That’s it! I quit!”

It hadn’t taken too long for Safiya to stop yelling; she probably just decided to let everyone else argue themselves out. Meanwhile, Joey, Jc and Rosanna were still trying to settle everyone else down. The three of them eventually met each other's gaze.

Rosanna nodded knowingly at both of them. Joey didn’t know what that meant at first, but then she started screaming bloody murder. Not screaming as in yelling at people, but a full-on, high pitched scream that only dogs should be able to hear. She was loud as hell, and some of the others covered their ears, but at least they stopped fighting. By the time she finally finished, everyone was quiet.

“Thank you,” Rosanna said blankly.

Joey was getting sick and tired of all this yelling. If he had to be subjected to any more of it, he’d probably run out of the building, screaming through the streets of L.A. as loudly as Rosanna.

“Okay, guys, that’s enough!” Joey exclaimed. “Look, it’s my fault, okay? I’m the one who accidentally dropped food on Colleen.” He could see Colleen rolling her eyes, but he kept talking. “If you guys want to place the blame on anyone, blame me, alright? I’m sorry we’re all stuck here, but can we all just give it a damn _rest?!_ Screaming at each other isn’t going to help this go by any faster.”

“That’s what _I’ve_ been saying,” Jc remarked. “Look, guys, if we can’t have a normal conversation without screaming at each other, maybe we should all just… not talk!”

“Fine,” Nikita spat.

“Gladly,” Matt agreed.

Colleen just rolled her eyes again, but she didn’t object. Everyone else seemed to begrudgingly agree to Jc’s proposal as well. Meanwhile, Jerry was still mopping in the corner.

 _You could have stepped in anytime, sir,_ Joey wanted to say.

But he didn’t say it. Nobody said anything for the rest of the day. Instead, everyone minded their own business. They scraped windows, wiped down tables, and picked up trash without saying a word. The only exchange they made with each other was the occasional scoff or death glare.

That was easily one of the worst days, if not the _actual_ worst day, of Joey’s life.

 

That night, a small group of ghosts stood outside the main building of the school. Three of them had their backs to the campus - two men and one women. The woman was dressed in a floor length black skirt, and her blouse had a few visible scorch marks on it. One of the men wore a ripped grey suit, topped with a black bowler hat that had several holes in it. The third one was wearing a charred yellow jacket, and his brown trousers were torn at the ankles. They all had unnaturally pale skin, and if you looked closely enough, you could see through all of them.

A figure with a ghostly white face a black cloak and was standing at the head of them. “I’m certain you all remember why I’ve summoned you all a few days ago,” the cloaked figure said slyly. “We still need to find what you’re looking for, I know. All you need to do is listen to what I tell you, and you’ll have it back. I’ve got a good feeling about that, my friends.”

The three ghosts agreed. Everything was going as the cloaked figure had planned. They just needed to wait one more week, then they could _really_ put their plan into motion.

Somewhere else, scattered across the city of Los Angeles, the ten kids had the same nightmare of being chased as they’d had a few days prior. _Unlike_ the first time, it hadn’t left their minds the next morning, and it kept coming back throughout the week.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well THAT could have gone better, huh? They'll all be friends soon I promise aaaaaa  
> On another note, writing a fight between 10 people is HARD. Hoooo boy
> 
> Next time: The real mystery is about to begin. Time to get spooky!


	4. The Hauntening

“Are you serious?!” Nikita demanded. She was standing outside the doors of the gym with Manny and Joey, and Ms. Wilson was blocking the entrance so they couldn’t go inside.

“Quite,” Ms. Wilson answered. “Seeing as you all are still in trouble for starting a food fight last week, we felt it was best.” She wasn’t smiling, but Nikita could hear the smug happiness in her tone.

Nikita couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Normally, she wouldn’t be too upset about missing the school’s pep rallies. She’d cut plenty of them anyway because it was basically a schoolwide excuse to skip sixth period. Unfortunately for her, she and the others still had one more day of detention. And it just so happened to be on the Friday of a pep rally for the school’s last basketball game of the season.

Manny huffed. “This is such a load of bull-”

“ _What_ was that, Mr. Gutierrez?” Ms. Wilson cut him off.

“Nothing.”

“I thought so.”

_Bitch._

She glared at Ms. Wilson and her stupid face. She hated it when people talked to her friends like that, especially if it was coming from the likes of  _her_.

“Now,” Ms. Wilson continued. “On your way, all of you.”

Joey, Manny and Nikita turned around and marched to the library. When they were about halfway there, it occurred to Nikita that detention would probably be better than a pep rally anyway. Besides, she’d barely gotten any sleep for the past week because of that crazy nightmare she’d kept having. She could really use a nap.

 

Everyone else was already there when the three of them arrived at the library. Joey was a little less tense that day. Over the period of the week, everyone was a little less angry around each other. Joey figured it was because of the fact that they were all sitting in a library together over a period of a week. They were still mostly quiet around each other most of the time, and it wasn’t exactly kumbaya style. Some people still seemed displeased with each other, but it was better than glaring each other down.

That day, everyone seemed less active than usual. Matt and Safiya were both reading mystery novels, but they must have barely been able to keep their eyes open. Rosanna leaned on Matt’s shoulder, seemingly about to fall asleep. Colleen was staring at her homework like it was a million miles away. Jc was hazily scribbling in his notebook. Teala and Roi were both napping, resting their heads on the table with their faces buried in their arms.

Mortimer and Calliope looked up from their respective paperwork. Since there were ten of them in the library, they’d both volunteered to keep an eye on them.

“There you guys are,” Mortimer said, taking a quick break from grading history papers. “Technically, detention started about five minutes ago, but I think we can let you off the hook, considering it’s your last day.”

“Cool,” Joey said, and flashed Mortimer a thumbs-up.

Mortimer was the cooler one among the Wilson teachers. Like Calliope, he preferred it when students called him by his first name. Joey thought it might have been because there was already a "Ms. Wilson," and she looked so young that it might have caused confusion if students called him "Mr. Wilson." There was also the fact that he didn't really seem like the kind of person who would go by the name, "Mr. Wilson." It sounded too bland for him.

The three of them sat at a nearby table. Nikita put her head on the table, using her arms as a pillow. Manny yawned and placed his hand on her back. Even Joey ended up rubbing his eyes.

_Why the hell is everyone so tired?_

 

Safiya was trying to concentrate on her Nancy Drew book, but it was getting harder and harder for her to focus. The words were printed in a small font, and the letters seemed to jumble together on the pages. She figured it was because of the lack of sleep she’d been getting over the past few days.

_Damn. I was just getting to the good part, too._

She sighed. She was about to say something like, _Why are these words printed in such a tiny font? I can’t make them out anymore._ What came out instead was a muttered, “Words, font, stupid.”

_Wait, what did I just say?_

Without looking up, Matt said, “Yes.”

“‘Yes’ what?” Safiya asked.

“What?” Matt repeated.

“Huh?” Manny added.

“What did you guys say?” Joey asked.

“Neil Degrasse Tyson,” Rosanna muttered without opening her eyes.

“Where?” Colleen asked.

Jc waved his hand. “I don’t want any girl scout cookies.”

"Who’s got cookies?” Colleen asked. “I want some.”

“No.”

“‘No’ what?” Teala asked.

“No cookies,” Jc said.

“We have cookies?” Joey asked.

Rosanna still didn’t open her eyes when she asked, “Wait, what’s my dog doing here?”

Manny cocked his head. “Your dog is made of cookies?”

“No, her name is Cookie.”

“Oh.”

Safiya clarified, “Cookie’s probably napping at your house, Ro.” She thought about how much her friend’s dog slept when she hung out at Rosanna’s house. She wished she was sleeping as well as Cookie usually did right about now.

“Aww,” Rosanna mumbled. “I haven’t seen her since this morning, I miss her.”

"But this table is so _comfortable_ ," Roi whined. “I don’t _wanna_ go all the way to Ro’s house to eat cookies...”

 _Dear God, what have I done?_ Safiya thought to herself.

 

Colleen lost track of what they were just talking about. First she heard someone probably had cookies, and now they were talking about dogs? God, she needed more sleep.

Matt buried his face in his book. “Aaaauugh, guys! We were having such a quiet day, like, five seconds ago…” He slurred his words, and Colleen might have thought he was drunk if she didn’t know any better.

Nikita raised her head. “Speaking of which, can you guys _please_ stop talking so loudly? I haven’t gotten any sleep last night!”

Calliope set down her pen. “It seems like you’ve all been more tired than usual lately. Why is that?”

“Nightmare,” Colleen answered, drowsily raising her hand.

“Really?” Calliope sounded intrigued. “Do tell."

Colleen wasn’t normally one to tell people about her dreams - especially her teachers - but she was too sleepy to care. “I was being chased the entire time,” she said.

Jc planted his head in his hands. “Same here. I tried to look behind me a couple of times to see what it was, but I couldn't find it.”

That was eerily similar to Colleen’s dream. She would hear something growling or calling out to her, but it would disappear when she tried to find out where it was coming from.

Rosanna lifted her head off of Matt. “Hang on,” she said. “You guys weren’t running through the dark, were you?”

As a matter of fact… “Yeah,” Colleen answered.

“Hang on…” Nikita said. "I was, too.”

That caught Teala’s attention. “What?” Her face was borderline deer-in-the-headlights.

“Wait…” Colleen cautioned. “Have we… have we _all_ been dreaming about that?”

Everyone glanced at each other, the same looks of confusion and slight fear on their faces. That was enough to answer her question.

 _Is that why we’ve been so quiet over the past few days?_ Colleen wondered. _Was everyone really having the same nightmare?_

“What the heck..?” Manny muttered.

Safiya set down her book. “How is that possible?”

“Okay…” Joey muttered. “This is weird.”

Mortimer seemed to agree. “Yeah…” he said thoughtfully.

All of a sudden, all the lights in the library started flickering on and off. The air in the room seemed to drop twenty degrees in an instant. Colleen shivered and pulled her cardigan back on.

Joey looked like he was about ready to sock someone in the nuts if they snuck up behind him. “Okay, now it’s officially freaky.”

For once, Colleen agreed with him.

 

Whatever was going on, Matt wasn’t liking it. Rosanna was shaking next to him, and he couldn’t tell if it was because she was cold, or because she was scared. He wrapped an arm around her, and Safiya moved next to them from across the table. Manny draped his arms protectively around Joey and Nikita. Colleen, Roi, Jc and Teala were all scooting close together as well.

“Okay,” Teala said, “what the hell is going on?”

Matt figured that everyone else wanted to know the same thing. Even Calliope and Mortimer seemed unsettled.

“Everyone calm down,” Matt assured them. “There must be some kind of explanation for all of this.”

Matt tried to think of a reason for why the power was acting weird, and why room was so cold all of a sudden. Maybe a fuse was blowing, or the air conditioner broke. Maybe something was just wrong with the electricity, and it was causing everything to act weird. Yeah, maybe that was it.

Calliope got everyone’s attention. “Okay, everyone. I think we should all move somewhere else. Just follow me and-”

All of a sudden, a large, heavy-looking book rammed into her head, knocking her to the ground.

“Calliope!” Matt cried out. But his theatre teacher didn’t answer. His heart dropped.

 _She’s… she’s not_ dead _, is she?!_

Mortimer ran over to check on her. “Calliope! Are you-” To make matters worse, the same book shot up off the ground and nailed him in the head as well.

“Mortimer!” Joey exclaimed. Just like Calliope, Mortimer didn’t respond.

A lump formed in Matt’s throat. He felt like his heart might stop. For a split second, he entered a world without two of his favorite teachers.

Joey rushed over to both of them, putting a finger to their necks. “They’ve got a pulse, but I think their unconscious.”

_They’re alive. Thank God._

Matt couldn’t help but feel a little relieved. But what in the world was happening?

More books started rocketing off of the shelves, throwing themselves at random intervals throughout the library. Some of the books started pelting the kids, causing them to shriek and cover their heads. Matt squeezed his eyes shut and held onto Rosanna and Safiya. Everything was getting worse by the second. He got the feeling it involved some kind of hoodoo voodoo witchcraft nonsense, which was really not up his alley.

 

Jc’s heard of books flying off the shelves, but this was ridiculous. He and the others were shielding themselves and trying to move out of the way, but more books kept flying at them. A small book about what looked like cats hit Jc in the head and fell to the ground. That was when he noticed that the books hitting the group were smaller and had less force than the one that hit Calliope and Mortimer.

 _Whatever’s doing this, they aren’t trying to knock us out,_ Jc realized. _They must be trying to scare us or something._

All at once, the books ceased to move again. Everything was still.

Silence.

“Uh-” Jc started.

Before he could figure out what to say, three large books slammed flat onto one of the nearby tables. Everyone immediately huddled together for protection. They all seemed to have completely forgotten about their previous quarrels as the ten of them clung to each other for dear life.

Teala poked her head out from behind Roi and Manny. “Matt?” she asked meekly. “What was that you were saying about a logical explanation?”

“Nevermind,” Matt squeaked.

Jc didn’t blame him.

 

Manny was having absolutely _none_ of this!

First they found out that they were all having the same creepy nightmare. Then the power went out, the library turned into a tundra, then books started _literally_ flying off of the shelves, and three of them just plopped open right in front of them. To make matters worse, (hey, look at that) the table started shaking violently, as if it were in the middle of an earthquake.

Manny wanted to know why they weren’t all running for their lives right then and there. He’s seen enough horror movies to know what happens to people when they don’t head for the hills whenever something scary happens. They died. As in, they were super freaking _dead_ before the end of the movie.

_This can’t possibly get any worse…_

“ _Give it back…_ ” the books growled. Their voices were gravelly and a little whiny.

Manny’s hair stood on end.  _Bitch… you had to get worse_ right _as I said that, didn’t you?_

 

Teala was about five seconds away from quoting the entire bible from start to finish. Her heart was pounding so loudly that she was pretty sure everyone else could hear it.

People started emerging from each of the three books. One was a woman in a long, black skirt and a scorched blouse. The other was a man in a ripped grey suit, with a bowler hat that had several holes in it. The third was a man in a charred yellow jacket, and his brown trousers were torn at the ankles. Their skin was unnaturally pale, and if Teala looked closely enough, she could see right through them.

_Ghosts..._

They were glaring at the terrified group, as if they were sizing them up. Teala shrunk behind Roi and tightened her grip on his arm.

“ _Give… it… BACK!_ ” the ghost in the bowler hat shrieked.

The ghosts lunged forward, throwing themselves at the group. Everyone screamed and took off running in different directions. Sure enough, the ghosts were in hot pursuit.

Teala screamed a trail of “ _Nopenopenopenopenope!_ ” She sprinted through the bookshelves, trying to lose the ghosts. She had to find somewhere safe. Anywhere else that wasn’t the library.

 

One thing was for sure: Safiya definitely had a fascination with the unusual. Things like aliens, Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster usually caught her interest immediately. On the other hand, she had an occasional tendency to be superstitious and paranoid. For that reason, she had a very strict “I Don’t Mess with Ghosts” policy.

And there she was, running for her life through the library while a trio of ghosts were shrieking at her and her fellow classmates to return something that none of them had.

Safiya ended up darting through one of the aisles with Manny. They’d just managed to lose one of the ghosts when they crashed into Colleen. The impact caused the three of them to fall to the ground.

“Ow!” Safiya exclaimed.

“Shit!” Colleen yelled. “Sorry! Are you two okay?”

“I’m alright,” Manny replied.

“Yeah,” Safiya assured her, but her hands were trembling. “Are _you_ okay?”

Before Colleen could answer, they heard one of the ghosts bellowing, “ _Give it back!_ ”

The yellow jacketed ghost rounded the corner, and Safiya figured Colleen must have just been running from him. His face was warped into a glare of twisted anger and hatred that Safiya never wanted to see again for the rest of her life.

_Nope!_

“Come on, guys!” Manny yelled.

They scrambled to stand back up. Manny grabbed the girls’ hands and pulled them along. For some strange reason, Safiya got a sudden odd sense of deja vu.

_Why does this feel so familiar?_

 

Nikita was racing through the library with Matt and Rosanna. The former was babbling a bunch of incoherent nonsense, and the latter was screaming her lungs out. Nikita would probably be annoyed if she weren’t worried about, you know, staying alive. She was freaking out, but she wasn’t about to let anyone know that.

“Through here!” Matt cried out.

He grabbed Rosanna’s hand and ducked into a nearby aisle, and Nikita followed. They crouched down and stayed quiet. They could hear the angry shrieks of the ghosts along with the frightened screams of their fellow classmates.

Rosanna was shaking like a leaf. Her whispering sounded like a quiet scream. “What do they _want?!_ Why are they chasing us?!”

“Whatever’s going on,” Nikita hissed, “I don’t think we should stick around to find out!”

A voice that sounded like a woman’s bellowed, “ _Give it back!_ ”

Nikita could see the ghost in the burnt black skirt gliding her way towards them. She noticed that her skirt looked more like a black burlap sack.

 _Seriously, brain?_ That’s _what you’re worried about right now?!_

The woman entered the shelf to the right of the group as if it weren’t there. Before Nikita could wonder what the ghost was doing, the entire shelf started wobbling. It was tipping over, and they all noticed that it was lined with dozens of big, wide encyclopedias. The kind that would be enough to send someone into a coma for two weeks.

“Guys!” Nikita cried out. “Look out!”

Without thinking, she grabbed both of them and shoved them ahead of her. They ran out of the aisle as quickly as they could as the shelf leaned over. They’d made it just in time to see the top of the shelf bang against the shelf next to it. Stacks of encyclopedias tumbled off of the racks, landing on the ground with dozens of loud _THUDS_.

_Damn! Those could have fallen on us!_

“Are you guys okay?” Nikita asked them.

“Yeah,” Matt replied breathlessly. “Thanks, Nikita.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Rosanna repeated.

“Don’t mention it,” Nikita replied.

They didn’t have too long of a moment before the ghost in the ugly black skirt emerged. “ _Give it back!_ ” she screamed.

Matt and Rosanna took off running again. Nikita had a full intention of joining them, but she had to do something very important first. She scooped up a book and hurled it at the ghost.

“We don’t _have_ it!” She yelled, and whirled around to catch up with Matt and Rosanna.

 

 _This is bad!_ Roi screamed internally. _This is_ so _bad!_

As he ran through the library, he caught sight of the others. Teala, Jc and Joey were close by, but it was hard to keep track of everyone else.

“Guys!” he called to his companions. “We need to get out of here!”

“Right!” Joey agreed. “Find the doors! Quick!”

They all scrambled to get to the front of the library, and Roi kept telling himself to be brave. This might have been a scary situation, but he wasn’t about to let anything happen to the others. Not when he had a chance to protect them.

He and Joey quickly found their way to the double doors that led out of the library. They forced them open and held them for the others.

Roi waved at everyone. “Guys! Over here! We found the doors!”

“This way! This way!” Joey exclaimed. “Hurry!”

The others found their way to the doors, and rocketed out of the library. Once everyone was out, Roi waved Joey ahead of him. He peered inside to make sure everyone was out, only to be greeted by the faces of the angry ghosts quickly approaching.

He instinctively yelled, “You’re ugly!” and slammed the doors as hard as he could. He sprinted after the others screaming, “Go go go go go!”

And go they did. Fortunately, they were all out of the library. Unfortunately, the ghosts were still following close behind. They all kept darting through the halls as the ghosts continued to give chase. 

_Brave! I’m brave! I ain't afraid o' no ghosts!_

Technically that part wasn't _completely_ true. Roi was terrified, but he kept himself going by thinking about his friends. If there was anything he was _certain_ was true, it was that he wanted them to be okay.

_Don’t worry, guys! I’ll keep you safe! I won’t let them hurt any of you!_

 

“Keep going, guys!” Joey called. “Run faster!”

“Where are we running?!” Safiya cried out.

“Away from _here!_ ” Joey answered. He had no idea where they should go, but anywhere away from the ghosts would be the same as the Bahamas as far as he was concerned. “Go ‘till you can’t go no more!”

The group sprinted through the halls as fast as their legs could carry them. Doors and lockers almost blurred as they zipped past. Joey did his best to make sure he could still see everyone. They were all still relatively close together, making things a little easier for him. As they approached the end of one of the halls, Joey could hear band instruments playing fanfair, followed by a big crowd of cheering people.

_The pep rally! We forgot about the pep rally!_

Before Joey could stop himself, he pushed through the double doors leading to the gymnasium. They ended up bursting through a banner meant to be crossed by the basketball team. They all skidded to a halt in the middle of the basketball court. Everyone’s eyes were on them, and their applause started to go quiet. It felt like the cafeteria all over again.

“Uh… sorry!” Joey stuttered.

“Everyone run!” Roi screamed as he entered. “Ghosts!”

Joey whirled around just in time to see the ghosts follow Roi inside. Kids and teachers went from confused muttering to frightened screaming as they scrambled to get out of the bleachers. All the while, the ghosts floated up to the ceiling, causing the lightbulbs to pop and go out. Joey and Roi pulled the others close to make sure they stayed together.

“Everyone stay close!” Joey cried out to the nine of them. “Get to the exits! Hurry!”

 

Rosanna hadn’t let go of Matt’s hand since they were in the library. She and the others raced through the gym with the panicking crowd. Some people were tripping over each other and shoving others out of the way as they tried to escape. They tried to head for the main exits, but the doors closed and locked on their own, trapping Rosanna and everyone else inside. The glass bulbs on the ceilings were still popping loudly, and everyone was soon left in almost total darkness. Of which Rosanna was afraid of.

_Dark! Dark! Very dark!_

She screamed involuntarily, and Matt squeezed her hand to let her know he was still there. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she instantly knew it was Safiya. As Rosanna’s eyes adjusted, she could see the others were still close by as well.

“What do we do?!” Rosanna exclaimed.

“I don't know!” Matt answered.

“I have no idea what’s going on!” Safiya added.

If Matt and Safiya were stumped, then Rosanna knew for a fact that it was a problem.

“Everyone!” Joey tried to yell. “Everything will be okay!”

Rosanna got the feeling he said that partially to reassure the others, and partially to reassure himself. She wanted to believe him, but said reassurance turned out to be short lived.

Something exploded in the back of the gym. The room was illuminated by an eerie red light, and a cloud of something that looked like smoke filled the air. A figure with a ghostly white face and a black cloak that they hadn't seen in the library emerged, floating high above everyone else. Rosanna tightened her grip on Matt’s hand and gripped Safiya's arm.

The figure spoke. It sounded like a man’s voice. It was deep, and it echoed throughout the gym. “Students and faculty of Everlock High School! This domain is no longer yours to tread! Leave these grounds! Should any of you choose to remain, you will all pay with your blood! So says… _The Specter!_ ”

The Specter laughed maniacally, and chills shot up and down Rosanna’s spine. With that, everyone was left in the dark again, and the Specter disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooooo boy I've been ready to write THIS chapter! Finally the real spookiness begins!
> 
> Next time: The gang tries to make sense of what the heck just happened, and come to a strange conclusion.


	5. The Aftermath

Colleen liked to think she was no stranger to ghosts; she was _very_ into the supernatural. She was pretty sure her house was haunted, too. The thing was, the ghost in her house was chill. Chill spirits, she’s got no tea with. Malevolent spirits were a whole different hornet’s nest all together. And she wanted to get the hell away from _these_ malevolent spirits as quickly as possible.

All of the exits to the gym unlocked once The Specter disappeared, and everyone began racing out into the halls and through the main building. There were two possible exits to the gym other than the main doors, which made it a little less difficult to get out. Groups of people took off running in different directions of different exits.

“ _Run!_ ” Colleen shouted to her nine peers.

And they took off once again. The bright lights in the halls burned her eyes, and she had to keep them squinted. In all the commotion, Colleen could just make out a few familiar faces. Sierra Furtado slipped and fell only to quickly push herself back up. Alex Wassabi pulled Tana Mongeau and Tyler Oakley alongside him. Lele Pons and Matt Haag tried to shove each other out of the way as they were running. For maybe half a second, Colleen considered catching up to Joey just so she could push him to the ground as well, and immediately wanted to kick herself in the face after the thought popped into her head.

_Brain! Stop it! Shut up and run!_

 

The group finally stumbled outside and away from the building. Somehow, despite the chaos, the ten of them had stuck together. As they were all trying to calm their frazzled nerves, Roi did a quick headcount to make sure everyone made it out safely.

_Let’s see… There’s Joey, Matt, Teala’s here, and… seven, eight, nine, and I’m ten. Okay, everyone’s here. Good._

“Is everyone okay?” Roi asked them.

“ _No!_ ” Colleen exclaimed.

_Alright, good to know._

“Okay… what the _hell_ was that?!” Joey demanded to know.

“Dude,” Jc said. He sounded exhausted from running. “We all wanna know the same thing!”

Rosanna frantically flailed her arms around. “Ghosts! There are _ghosts_ in the school!”

That seemed like about as much of an explanation as any. All Roi knew was that a bunch of ghosts had just chased them down, tried to kill them, and warned everyone to stay away from school. Normally, Roi would be fine with staying away from school, but not in _that_ context. Something had to be done, but what?

 

Teala tried to take a moment to process everything that she just saw. Maybe if she ran through everything in her head, she’d understand what happened. Okay… they were just in detention. Then the power went all wonky. Then a group of ghosts chased them through the school. Then a fourth ghost warned everyone to leave the school.

 _Okay,_ Teala thought. _There is_ nothing _about any of this that I understand._

“Isn’t there something we can do?” Teala wondered aloud. She was still horrified, but she didn’t want the situation to be left as it was. Not while there were _literal_ ghosts in the school.

“There’d better be,” Joey said. “These ghosts can’t just get away with this.”

“What _can_ we do?” Manny asked. “I’d be down to help and all, but they’re _ghosts_.”

“Hold on,” Safiya said, “where are Calliope and Mortimer? Did anyone see them on the way out?”

They glanced around, trying to find their teachers. They didn’t see them at first, and the pit in Teala’s stomach worsened.

Colleen pointed. “I see them!”

Teala turned to where Colleen was pointing, and her heart instantly felt a thousand pounds lighter. She saw Calliope and Mortimer not too far away from the building’s entrance. They were walking away from the door and inspecting each other’s heads.

“Calliope! Mortimer!” Teala cried out.

“Oh, thank God!” Matt exclaimed. He sounded happier than he had all week.

They all rushed over to the two of them, and Teala was overwhelmed with relief. Calliope and Mortimer were both safe. They were okay.

 _At least_ something _good happened after all of that,_ Teala thought.

 

“Kids!” Calliope exclaimed.

“Thank God you’re all safe,” Mortimer said.

Rosanna got to them first. She threw her arms around both Calliope and Mortimer, and the rest of the group joined them. Their teachers’ expressions were a mix of surprise and relief. As far as Rosanna was concerned, they probably _all_ needed a hug after everything they’d just been through. When they all broke apart and she got a better look at the two of them, she noticed a couple of red marks on their faces where the book had struck them.

“Are you guys alright?” Rosanna asked.

“Do those hurt?” Nikita added, gesturing at their wounds.

“We’ll be okay, guys,” Mortimer assured them. “Don’t worry.”

“What happened?” Calliope asked. “You all disappeared after we came to.”

Everyone broke out into some kind of chatter. Rosanna couldn’t quite make out what they were saying together other than “ghost,” “library,” and “cookies.”

Mortimer held up his hands. “Woah, woah, one at a time!” Everyone quieted down, and he continued. “Now, can one of you _please_ tell us what just happened?”

Rosanna was the one to speak. “There were a bunch of ghosts back in the library. They were the ones who knocked you guys out with that giant book. They were chasing us until we escaped and ended up in the gym, and another ghost who called himself ‘The Specter’ warned everyone to never set foot on school grounds again. It was _really_ scary.”

“It sounds like it was,” Calliope said.

“We know it sounds impossible,” Jc said, “but I swear that really happened.”

Calliope nodded. “We believe you.”

“Yeah,” Mortimer agreed. “The only question is if anyone else will.”

Someone came out of the building, and the group could hear them yelling. Rosanna followed the sound to find it was Mr. Cash. “Single file! I said _single file!_ Everyone just - oh, forget it.” He walked away from the doors to join Calliope and Mortimer.

“Mr. Cash,” Mortimer said, “is everything okay?”

“Given the situation in there,” Mr. Cash replied, “I’d say no. I feel like we may need to consider cancelling classes next week.”

 _This doesn’t sound good,_ Rosanna thought. She loved the school and so many people in it. She would be devastated if anything bad happened to it all because of a bunch of ghosts.

 

Manny considered their options. On the one hand, there was the possibility of school being cancelled, which he might be cool with on any other day. On the other hand, a bunch of ghosts just terrorized him and his peers. There was also the possibility of the school being shut down completely, and a bunch of teachers like Calliope and Mortimer would lose their jobs. He wasn’t cool with any of those things.

“Well, what’s gonna happen now?” Manny asked.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Cash replied. “I’m worried we’ll be in danger as long as these ghosts are here. I really don’t think we have any other option than to talk to the principal and-”

“Excuse me!” The unwelcomed voice of Ms. Wilson butted into the conversation as she strolled over to the teachers.

 _Yes,_ Manny wanted to say, _you’re excused._

“Yes, Ms. Wilson?” Calliope asked. She kept a straight face, but Manny could smell her contempt from a mile away.

Ms. Wilson continued. “With all do respect, I don’t think that would be the best course of action here.” She said “with all do respect” as if she meant the complete opposite.

“Why is that?” Calliope asked flatly.

Manny wondered if it was still okay for him and the others to be standing there. A conversation between a group of teachers didn’t exactly seem like something they were supposed to be listening in on. However, what Ms. Wilson said next gave them a perfectly good reason to stay to the end of their discussion.

“Isn’t it obvious?" Ms. Wilson asked. "It would seem we’ve got a prankster on our hands. This whole charade was most likely someone’s sick idea of a joke, organized by a group of petulant delinquents.” She turned to the kids and scowled.

Manny was thunderstruck. “ _Us?!_ ” he exclaimed.

“Well,” Ms. Wilson continued, “you all weren’t at the pep rally with everyone else. You were in detention. You’d have to admit it makes you all look pretty suspicious.”

 _Because you_ told _us we couldn’t be there!_ Manny’s brain screamed.

“But we _were_ in detention,” Manny retorted instead.

“Yeah!” Joey jumped in. “We didn’t do any of this!”

That didn’t seem to be enough to convince Ms. Wilson. “I hope you know that ‘we didn’t do it’ doesn’t wrap up in your favor.”

“But we really _didn’t!_ ” Roi said.

“Yeah,” Safiya added. “We’re just as confused as you are.”

Mr. Cash added his piece. “I’m going to have to agree with Ms. Wilson, here. Because if you kids can’t find someone to speak for you, I’m afraid more detention will be the least of your worries.”

To go back to what Manny was trying to say a while ago… _This is such a load of bullshit._

 

Everyone in the group had a mutual feeling of shock and injustice, and Jc couldn’t say he wasn’t feeling it, too. He was fine with the detentions for starting the food fight, considering they’d _actually_ started it. Being accused of pretending to be ghosts just because Ms. Wilson thought they were just that angry about their punishments was something else.

 _This is kinda messed up,_ Jc thought.

He knew that there was no way they could have pulled any of that off, even if they’d tried. The problem was that they couldn’t prove that. Ms. Wilson and Mr, Cash hadn’t seen them being chased by the ghosts. They hadn’t seen them running for their lives through the halls and into the gym. They were virtually screwed.

“Ms. Wilson and Mr. Cash,” Calliope suddenly asserted. “They were with us the entire time. We didn’t see them doing anything suspicious.”

Ms. Wilson eyed Calliope distastefully. Her voice was condescending when she spoke. “Calliope, I know things work _differently_ for you and the other students, but -”

Mortimer cut her off, putting a hand on her shoulder. “Mom, she’s right. We saw everything that happened in the library. I can tell you for a fact that they had nothing to do with any of this.”

Jc was taken aback by this. Calliope and Mortimer were both unconscious while he and the others were being chased. There was no way they would have known what they were doing for sure. Not to mention the fact that Mortimer was straight up lying to his _mother_.

Ms. Wilson and Mr. Cash looked back and forth between Calliope and Mortimer for a long time. Jc was impressed by the two latters’ poker faces. That was saying a lot coming from the guy who had a winning streak at poker for the past six months.

Just when he was getting worried that they weren’t buying it, Ms. Wilson let out a sigh. “Alright, then,” was all she had to say. Then she turned her attention back to the group. “Don’t think I won’t be keeping an eye on you all.”

She walked off, yelling at students to stop running in the halls. Mr. Cash didn’t say anything more, but the look he gave them carried the same message. He left in a different direction, probably to find the principal.

Mortimer said, “I’m gonna see if everyone made it out of the building.”

“I’ll go with you, then, “Calliope said.

They both went off to do just that, but not before winking and smiling knowingly at the kids.

 _Okay,_ Jc thought. _Calliope and Mortimer: New favorite teachers._

 

Nikita didn’t know what to say. She’d never had a teacher defend her before, much less be willing to lie to another teacher for her. She felt a need to slap herself in the face to make sure she hadn’t fallen asleep in the library, and that whole thing turned out to be part of some sort of crazy dream.

“Okay,” Nikita said to Matt. “I see why you guys like them now.”

“Yeah,” Matt smiled proudly. “They’re pretty cool.”

Nikita was still iffy about MatPat, but he sure had a good taste in teachers. She wondered if it was too late to transfer classes. The drama classes had always seemed cool to her anyway, and she already preferred Mortimer over Mr. Cash by a _long_ shot.

But there was still the matter at hand. As the group started walking away from the school, Nikita figured someone needed to address the elephant in the room.

“Okay… about _that_.” Nikita gestured toward the school. “What’s gonna happen to the school?”

Manny jumped in. “And what are they gonna tell the parents if they actually decide to close it?”

Rosanna sighed. “This is a disaster…”

“Oh, mother, father,” Colleen chirped, “I know you’ll believe me when I tell you I have a perfectly legitimate reason for dropping out of school. It’s because a bunch of _ghosts_ told me to!” She threw her hands up in the air. “The school is _haunted!_ ”

At this point, Nikita was inclined to agree with them. Everything that just happened was something that she would have called bullshit on two weeks ago. Now, with the storm last week, the nightmares, and now the ghosts, she didn’t know  _what_ to make of it.

 

“Hmmm…” Safiya murmured.

The gears in her head started turning. Her deja vu had been rooted into her mind since it first popped up in the library. As she was connecting the dots, she thought she might have had it figured out.

“Wait a second,” Safiya said. “Ghosts! That’s it!”

“Yeah,” Colleen said. “That’s what I just said.”

Jc clearly seemed interested. “What’s it?”

“Ro, Matt,” Safiya said, “do you guys remember when we were out running a couple weeks ago? We saw a group of people in the woods. Didn’t those ghosts look a little like them?”

Rosanna’s eyes lit up. “Oh, yeah… you’re right! They kinda looked like those people from a distance.”

“Their clothes _did_ look a little familiar,” Matt agreed. “Maybe _that_ was why!”

Joey knitted his eyebrows. “Wait, what are you guys talking about?”

Safiya spoke up. “The three of us were running through a park a few weeks ago, and we saw three people in a cemetery. They kinda looked like the ghosts who chased us out of the library.”

Teala cocked her head. “So you guys think those ghosts followed you all out of the cemetery and ended up here?”

“I think it’s possible,” Safiya stated. “It might help if we learn their names, at the very least. If we know who they were when they were alive, maybe we can find out more about them.”

Manny held up a hand. “Are you suggesting we go to the cemetery where you guys first saw the _very_ ghosts that just demanded that we stay away from the school, or they’d _kill_ us?”

Safiya thought about that for a moment. She wasn’t crazy about cemeteries, and she _definitely_ still hated ghosts. But she wanted some kind of explanation for what they’d just witnessed. Even so much as a simple clue would make her feel better. Besides, she couldn’t sit idly by and let these ghosts terrorize her friends and mentors. People needed help.

So she made up her mind. “If it means we find out who those ghosts were and put an end to this, yes.”

 

Matt thought back to what the ghosts were saying in the library: _Give it back_. What exactly were they looking for? Why did they want it back so badly? And third of all, who were they? He wanted answers to all of those questions.

“I agree, guys,” Matt said. “If we can figure out the identities of these ghosts and what they were missing, maybe they’ll leave the school alone.”

“ _We?_ ” Nikita asked.

“Is that a good idea?” Teala added. “I don’t know if we should be messing with this.”

“ _Someone_ has to,” Joey said. “What are people going to tell the police if they try to call them? ‘My school’s haunted and a bunch of ghosts are threatening to kill me and a bunch of others if we don’t stay away.’”

Matt couldn't deny that. If it were _him_ , he’d send at least twenty-four police cars, the SWAT team, and a dragon on a leash to the school right away. If it were any other hardboiled detective, though, they probably wouldn’t have believed it.

“Besides,” Matt said, “think about it. All our friends, the people working hard to give us an education… they could lose this if it goes on. We need to do something about it.”

 

As Joey was listening to everyone, he thought about how he wanted to approach their predicament. On any other day, he probably would have played it safe, turned around, ran away and moved to Bolivia. But the others were right. They couldn’t let those ghosts continue terrorizing the school. Something needed to be done about that, and Joey wanted to make sure that said something was done.

“Sounds like a plan,” Joey agreed with Matt. “What do you guys say?”

“Alright,” Jc decided. “Count me in.”

“Me too,” Safiya said.

“I’ll help, too!” Rosanna added enthusiastically.

“Can I bring my gloss, though?” Manny asked.

“Fine,” Matt replied.

“Then I’m down.”

“I’ll go,” Nikita stated. “You might need to kick someone’s ass.”

“Ooh!" Roi raised his hand. "I can help with that, too!”

“ _You?_ ” Nikita asked.

Roi shrugged. “Why not? It wouldn’t hurt to have two bodyguards.”

Nikita rolled her eyes, but didn’t otherwise say anything.

Teala seemed hesitant at first, but she quickly made up her mind. “I’m in, too,” she decided. She might have felt a little more confident about being in a group.

“What about you, Colleen?” Roi asked.

“Absolutely,” Colleen asserted. “Anything to help.”

Something told Joey that she wasn’t looking forward to working with him, but at least they were on the same side on something for once. He felt a little better about everything. They had a team, and they had a job to do. Best of all, they seemed to actually kind of be getting along. Finally.

“First things first, then,” Joey said. “We need to figure out who those ghosts are. Matt, Ro, Safiya, why don’t you guys show us where you first saw those ghosts?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with that, we've officially got a team together!
> 
> Next time: The gang goes to the cemetery to look for their first clue.


	6. The Cemetery

By the time they all got to the woods later that evening, the sun was just about to go over the horizon. The moon and a couple of stars had already started to make their appearance. Everyone carried a flashlight of some kind as they trekked through the woods.

Joey stuck to the back to make sure everyone was staying together. Matt, Rosanna and Safiya were up ahead, leading everyone to the cemetery. Roi kept waving his flashlight around whenever he heard something in the bushes. Joey figured it was just a bunch of squirrels. Teala kept her arms looped between Colleen and Jc. Manny was sticking close to Nikita, who had brought a baseball bat.

When they’d first arrived, Matt criticized Nikita for doing so. “Okay, Nikita,” he’d told her. “I still don’t think you needed to bring a bat. It’s really unnecessary.”

“Honey,” Nikita had said, “I’m not going into a cemetery at this hour without a weapon. If you want, you can always throw that Game Boy of yours at someone. That’ll _definitely_ help.”

Colleen had cut in after that. “Or we could just throw _you_ at them if you’re so obsessed with punching everything that breathes.”

The whole thing probably would have gotten worse if Jc hadn’t stepped in to stop it.

They were a little bit into the woods, and Joey lost track of how long they’d been walking. He figured that rationally they hadn’t been out that long, but it felt like forever. “How much farther is it?” he asked.

“We’re getting close,” Matt answered. “There’s a clearing with a view of the cemetery just a ways up ahead.”

Rosanna turned around. “I go running through here all the time. Don’t worry, I know where I am.”

“Hold on,” Manny spoke. “How are we gonna know which graves are the right ones?”

Safiya informed the group, “We saw those people near the back of the cemetery. If we’re right, their graves might be around there.”

Joey normally knew better than this. Prancing around in the woods on your way to a cemetery was usually a _very_ bad idea. At least the sun was still kind of out. If it were late at night, he would have noped the hell out of there long time ago. Hopefully they wouldn’t be there for too long. All they needed to do was find the gravestones, get the names written on them, and get out of there.

Joey spoke up. “Let’s just try and get what we need as quickly as we can, guys. The ghosts might find out if we’re disturbing their graves.”

Safiya added a concern of her own. “The park is also closing in an hour. We probably shouldn’t be out here when it does. We’re already dealing with ghosts, we don’t need the law coming after us, too.”

“An hour still gives us time,” Colleen said.

Safiya explained, “It’s at least a fifteen minute walk there from the park’s entrance, and it’ll be fifteen minutes back. That’s half of our remaining hour.”

“Which still gives us time,” Colleen repeated.

Safiya sighed and kept walking. Joey’s was a little disheartened about the remaining friction within the group. If they were all going to work as a team, everyone needed to work out their differences somehow.

They finally reached a clearing after a few more minutes of awkward silence and nervous tension. Rosanna shone her phone light to the right. There was a sign that read, “St. Louis Memorial Cemetery” pointing to the right. The sign lead to a black iron gate with a walkway leading into the cemetery

“We’re here,” Rosanna said.

_Lovely..._

 

Manny and the others finally made it to the outer gates of a creepy ass freaking cemetery. The black iron gate surrounding the grounds was almost totally covered by the brush. Dozens of tombstones stuck out of the ground in haphazard rows. A small building was set off to the side. It was a little too dark, so Manny couldn’t tell if it was a small church, or a really big tool shed.

 _We’re_ trying _it, bitch,_ Manny thought. _We’re_ actually _trying it._

He had half the mind to slap every single one of them in the face one by one, including himself.

“Sooooo…” Manny muttered cautiously. “Are we doing this?”

“Might as well,” Matt confirmed.

Alright, they came all that way. They might as well start investigating so they can get out of there. Together, the gang walked under the sign and into the cemetery.

“Just so you all know,” Manny said as they entered, “ if we start getting murdered, I’m leaving your asses.”

 

Now that she was getting a better look, Rosanna noticed details of the cemetery that she hadn’t seen before. The setting sun combined with the shade from the surrounding trees made the grey tombstones look almost blue. A few of them had fresh flowers placed delicately in front of them. The grass was freshly cut, as if the grounds keeper had just recently been there.

Despite how nice it tried to look, Rosanna couldn’t relax. She kept thinking about how many dead people were lying beneath them right then and there. She could sense a hundred dead eyes staring at her and the others from six feet under the ground.

“So where do we start?” Jc asked.

Rosanna thought back to when she first saw the ghosts. She remembered how far they were from the gate.

“I remember they were a little far off in the back,” she told the group. “To the right.”

Safiya glanced in that direction. “I’ll bet that’s where we’ll find what we’re looking for. Let’s check there first.”

As everyone made their way over to the back of the cemetery, Rosanna tried not to imagine a decaying hand reaching up to grab at her ankles.

 

The cemetery wasn’t that big, but the tombstones were spread out. It made it a little difficult for Teala to count them all.

“How many people are buried here?” she wondered aloud.

“I’d say at least forty,” Roi replied.

Matt made an observation. “Looks like some of these people died when the original Everlock was shut down.”

“Pardon?” Joey asked.

“Yeah,” Teala added. “What’s this about another school?” She never heard anything about an original Everlock. As far as she knew, they were already attending the original school.

Safiya answered their question. “There was actually a different school before the one we know. The original campus was composed of only two buildings instead of four. A few months after the first one opened, there was a really bad accident in one of the chemistry labs. A couple of unstable bunsen burners set fire to a spilled base and acid, and it caused an explosion. The lab was destroyed, and teachers and students were killed inside.”

“Jeez…” Nikita muttered.

 _Jeez is right,_ Teala thought.

Matt concluded the story. “The campus was torn down after that, and a whole new school was built right on top of the old one ten years later. The city thought it would be disrespectful to the victims and their families to leave the buildings standing.”

Teala unhooked her arms from Colleen’s and Jc’s, and shone her phone’s light on one of the graves as they passed.

_Cassidy Reeves, February 12, 1896 -  March 17, 1911_

Teala shuddered. Cassidy was around the same age as them. She wondered offhandedly if Cassidy was one of the students who died in the lab. She straightened her gaze, and tried not to think about what fifteen-year-olds think when they’re about to die.

“Let’s just find the graves and get out of here,” Teala said. “This place is giving me the creeps.”

" _Everything_ gives you the creeps, Teala,” Colleen teased.

“It’s a _cemetery_. I think I get a pass.”

“Fair enough.”

 

“It’s right around here,” Matt finally said.

The group arrived in a small, empty area holding only three tombstones. They came to a stop, and Matt inspected the stones. They were arranged closer together than most of the others around the grounds.

Joey spoke. “So this is where the ghosts were few weeks ago?”

“Yeah,” Matt replied. “Looks like we were right.”

The gang shone their flashlights on the stones so they could read the names.

_Catherine McLean_

_Robert Jones_

_Simon Ford_

_Okay,_ Matt thought. _This is a good first clue._

It wasn’t much, but they knew the names of most of the ghosts. That should be enough to help them get some kind of lead. Despite this, Matt couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing something.

“That’s three of them,” Matt observed. “Where’s the fourth?”

Safiya put her hands on her hips. "Strange... I was sure we'd find all four of them here."

Joey brought up something else. “And why are they all buried together?”

Matt was wondering the same thing.

“Yeah,” Nikita added, tapping her nails on her bat. “They don’t look like they could be related.”

“That can’t be it,” Jc said. “There must be something else here that we’re not seeing.”

Manny knit his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Maybe they have some sort of tie to each other?”

Safiya pointed something out. “It looks like they all died on the same day: March 17, 1911. Maybe that means something.”

“Hey,” Teala said, “that was the same day as when someone our age died. I saw her tombstone back there.”

“I saw that date, too,” Colleen said. “Something _definitely_ happened that day if that many people died. That much we know.”

Roi scratched his head. “Was that the day of the chemical accident?”

“I think so,” Rosanna answered. “All I know for sure is that it happened in 1911.”

Matt and Safiya both knelt down, pulled out their phones and took pictures of the tombstones. If they were that close together, they must have held some kind of significance. When they stood back up, Matt saw Jc writing something on a little notepad.

“Are you writing the ghost’s names?” Matt asked Jc.

“Sort of,” Jc replied. “I’m just sketching the gravestones out as notes. It’s easier for me to remember things if I draw them than if I write them or take pictures of them.”

Matt could respect someone who used creative methods like that to help them learn. He was no stranger to doodling stuff in his notes himself. He would have to admit that he wasn’t too sure about how Jc would be able to help at first, but his brain must have really been working. It was just in a different way than his and Safiya’s. Maybe Matt misjudged him.

 

Joey felt satisfied with their progress. They found their first clue: the ghosts’ names. Cool!

“Okay!” Joey chirped. “We have our first clue. I feel like our next course of action should be to do some research on these people. We’ll be able to figure out their ties that way.”

“I can take care of that,” Matt said. “Saf, Jc, do you guys want to help me?”

“Sure thing,” Safiya replied.

“Yeah, I’m down,” Jc agreed.

Joey felt good about that trio. Between the three of them, they seemed like pretty smart cookies.

“Make sure they look like the ghosts we saw in the library,” Joey told them. “That’ll confirm for sure that it’s them.”

“Let’s meet back up tomorrow,” Roi said. “There’s this 70’s diner called Fatman Slim’s near downtown. We can meet there tomorrow and go over everything over breakfast.”

Nikita said matter-of-factly, “I don’t wake up before two on Saturdays.”

“Okay, how about lunch then?” Roi suggested.

“That’s fine,” Nikita said.

“I’m always down for lunch," Rosanna agreed. “Where is it?”

Roi’s face faltered. “I… I don’t remember the address.”

“I do,” Colleen offered. “My family and I go there all the time. How about some of you guys just give me your numbers, and I’ll text you all the address later tonight.”

Everyone agreed. Jc, Roi and Teala already had her info, so they didn’t need to worry about it. Colleen exchanged numbers with Rosanna without too much of a problem. As for everyone else, it was like she was having a glaring contest with all of them one by one. Joey didn’t really think much of exchanging numbers with Colleen because, to his knowledge, she still had it. However, it occurred to him that she might have deleted it.

He was about to leave with the others when Colleen got his attention. “Joey, I don’t have your number.”

Joey was kind of expecting that, but it still hurt. “No problem,” he said instead. “I think I still have yours, so-”

“That’s not my number anymore. I changed it freshman year.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

With that, the two of them awkwardly switched phones so they could put in their respective numbers. There was already chatter amongst everyone else, so at least it wasn’t painfully silent. Joey wanted to at least make an attempt at a conversation to break the tightness between the two of them.

“So…” he started. “Can I ask why you changed your number?”

“Got a new phone,” she replied flatly. “Just felt like changing it.”

“What was wrong with your old one?”

“Nothing. I sold it.”

“Why?”

Colleen forced Joey’s phone back at him without saying another word. Joey reluctantly took it out of her hand, and held Colleen’s phone in front of him so she could take it back. She swiped it back so quickly that Joey thought she’d drop it.

And that was the end of _that._

Part of Joey was pretty irritated with Colleen at that point. She was so angry with everyone, including him, and it was only adding to the group’s remaining friction. Meanwhile, a small part of him still felt bad about the fact that they weren’t friends anymore. He wanted to find out why specifically she was still angry at him, but judging by that most recent exchange, she wouldn’t want to. Joey wished he could just read her mind and figure out why she was acting like such an Ice Queen.

 

Colleen took the rear with Teala and Jc as they followed the rest of the gang out of the cemetery and back into the woods. She was walking arm-in-arm with Teala, who’s grip was just tight enough not to cut the blood circulation to her hand this time around. They were both reading over some notes on the graves that Colleen took down on her phone.

 

  * __Catherine McLean, Robert Jones, Simon Ford (Ghosts in the library?)__


  * _All died on March 17, 1911_


  * _Buried close together_



 

“What do you guys make of it?” Colleen asked them.

Teala stared at the notes. “They were obviously buried together for a reason. Maybe they had some kind of significance like everyone was saying.”

Something told Colleen that Teala wanted to say more, but she couldn't quite think of what. She started to wonder if this was getting overwhelming for her.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Jc said. He was inspecting the drawing on his pad. “I’ll let you guys know what we find.”

Roi eventually waved his arm at them from up ahead. “Hey, Teala! Come here for a sec, I want to ask you about the grave you saw.”

Teala unhooked her arm from Colleen’s and went over to join him. Out of the corner of her eye, Colleen noticed Jc flashing him a thumbs up. Roi responded by shooting him with a finger gun.

“What’s that about?” Colleen asked.

“I needed Teala ahead for a second to talk to you alone," Jc replied.

“Why?”

“I just wanted to ask if you could be a little less…” He made a few small hand gestures, like he was thinking about what to say. “Passive aggressive?”

Colleen knit her eyebrows. “Seriously? I wasn’t the only one who-”

“I know, but you were kinda acting like a jerk a couple times tonight. I know you’re not like that, but that was a little uncalled for back there.”

His voice was turning into the one he used when his friends were upset about something. If they ever got a bad grade on a test, had a personal problem, or if they were getting too deep into their own heads, that voice would come out, and Jc would help his friends calm down. It usually worked. The only time Colleen could think of when it didn’t was back at the cafeteria.

Still, Colleen didn’t want to let it go just yet. “I’m just here because I wanted to help. I’m not here because I wanted to hang out with them. _Especially_ Joey.”

“You can’t hold onto that forever.”

“Wanna bet?”

“Colleen.” Jc’s face became stern. “It’s not healthy, and you know it.”

He was right. Colleen’s friends knew more than anyone how much she hated being that angry for so long. She would always feel bad about how it made the people around her feel, and it was always so exhausting afterwards. The worst part was that she would sometimes let herself get to that point. Like just now.

“Hey, man,” Jc continued. “I get it. I know it was hard for you a few years ago. Friend breakups _suck_ , especially given the rest of your circumstances back then. Detention sucked, too, more recently speaking. But it doesn’t help anyone if you keep acting like that around Joey and some of the others.”

Colleen sighed. “I know, I know… I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Maybe just give them a chance? If we’re all going to be working together to solve this, we might as well try to get along.”

Once again, Jc was right. Now that she thought about it, she felt bad about the way she was treating everyone else. They were all just as committed to the mystery as she was. It would suck if she got in the way of that all because of some petty drama that might not have even mattered anymore.

Was it too late to start over? She hoped not. It was worth a shot, at least.

Colleen took a breath and made up her mind. “Okay, I hear you. I’ll do my best.”

Jc smiled his usual calm smile. “Sweet.”

They caught up to the rest of the group after that. Before Colleen knew it, they were out of the woods and back in the main park. She fished out her phone and checked the time: 6:52. They made it back with eight minutes to spare.

_I guess Safiya must be happy about that._

She then took the opportunity to scroll through her contacts. She’d saved Joey’s number under the name “Undercooked Lasagna,” which was a _very_ harsh insult between the Ballinger siblings when Colleen was a kid. Her parents used to make them give a nickel to the insultee whenever they used it just to get them to stop. She hesitantly changed the name back to “Joey,” and then proceeded to create a group chat with everyone’s numbers.

Colleen made a mental note to apologize to the others when they were at the diner tomorrow. That would probably better than an apology over text. Hopefully, that would be a step in the right direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Progress! Yeah!!
> 
> Important side note:  
> 9-year-old Colleen: MOOOOOOOM CHRISTOPHER CALLED ME AN UNDERCOOKED LASAGNA!!  
> Mrs. Ballinger: That's five cents, Christopher.  
> Colleen: WOOOOO I'M RICH!!  
> (That conversation is now canon in this universe, and it was indeed a TheOdd1sOut reference that I felt was appropriate)
> 
> Another side note:  
> If the name Cassidy Reeves sounds familiar, I wanted to put in a little reference from "Mystery Incorporated" :)
> 
> Next time: The gang goes over what they found, and they come up with a plan.


	7. We Have a Mystery on Our Hands

Joey and Nikita arrived at Fatman Slims around two the next day. Inside, vinyl records and movie posters lined the white walls. The seats and tables were a bright red with a reflective silver trim on the edges. A juke box was nestled next to the bar, and Joey could hear the lyrics to some upbeat disco music that he couldn't quite make out. The place had a real retro charm to it, and Joey was digging what he was seeing.

“This is so cute!” Joey gushed.

“I know,” Nikita agreed. “We’ll have to come back here when this is over.”

The two of them glanced around, looking for everyone else. He saw them sitting in a corner booth big enough to fit all of them. From left to right, he could see Teala, Colleen, Roi, Manny, Rosanna, Safiya, Matt and Jc.

“That’s them over there,” he told Nikita, and they made their way over.

Rosanna was the first to see them, and waved over at them excitedly. “There they are!”

Joey slid in next to Jc, and Nikita followed. He asked, “We didn’t keep you guys waiting too long, did we?”

“Nah,” Jc said. He gestured at Matt and Safiya. “The three of us just got here a minute ago. You’re just in time.”

A waitress with her hair styled in a milk braid came over to their table. “Good afternoon, all. My name is Stacey, and I’ll be serving you today. Is this all of you?”

“Yes ma’am,” Joey answered. It occurred to him that they should probably leave a good tip for her, considering there were ten of them.

Stacey took everyone’s orders, and their food arrived surprisingly quickly. By the time everyone got their meals, Colleen and Roi both finished off two complimentary baskets of french fries through their combined efforts. Everyone else got some, of course, but the two of them ate the most. And they both _still_ managed to eat their lunches as if they hadn’t already scarfed all of that down.

Manny chuckled and asked, “Do you two have extra stomachs or something?”

“Yeah,” added a giggling Rosanna. “You two are more addicted to fries than _I_ am.”

“Hey,” Roi replied, “It’s not my fault that Colleen _conveniently_ forgot to tell me how addictive these fries were.”

“I didn’t forget, dude,” Colleen said. “They _are_ addictive.”

Joey couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. It was so refreshing seeing everyone getting along in a laid back setting. He still didn’t know what to think about Colleen, but this was much more pleasant than the constant arguing with each other. As fun as it was, though, they still had a job to do.

“So,” Joey said, turning to the three Einsteins to his right. “Did you guys find some good stuff last night?”

Matt put down his diet coke and said, “Oh, absolutely.”

Safiya smiled confidently. “I feel like we got a pretty good lead last night.”

“Okay!” Joey clapped his hands together. “In that case, spill the tea, sisters.”

 

Jc watched as Matt unzipped his backpack, and helped him take out some sheets of paper that they’d printed from a history website the night before. They’d written some notes on the article in three different colored pencils. Safiya’s notes were written neatly in blue, some of them in the form of questions. Matt used green to write somewhat similar notes with little arrows and charts, along with an occasional video game reference here and there. Jc’s notes were orange, and there were more little drawings than words. He still made sure his partners could understand them.

Manny seemed to be playing a little matching game with their notes. “I think I know who wrote what.”

“Is it that obvious?” Jc asked, looking up from the paper he was holding.

Roi shrugged. “Just a bit,” he said.

Jc figured that much. Roi most likely couldn’t see the notes from where he was sitting, but he didn’t have to. Roi was perfectly familiar with Jc’s note-taking habits by now. He once texted Jc asking why there was a drawing of carbon and oxygen making out on his notes about chemical compounds, and the rest is history.

“Anyway,” Matt said, “check this out, guys.” He held up a picture from the article of three familiar faces for the others to see.

Manny gasped. “What the hell?”

Roi’s eyes widened. “Woah…”

“Is that them?” Nikita asked.

“Yeah,” Safiya confirmed. “Those tombstones we first saw in the cemetery _definitely_ belong to our ghosts.”

Jc pointed at each of the people in the photo from left to right. “The one in the gray suit and bowler hat is Robert Jones. Simon Ford is the guy in the yellow jacket. Catherine McLean is indeed the woman’s name.”

“We were right,” Joey said. “It really _was_ them.”

“That’s creepy,” Teala muttered.

“Yeah, but that’s good,” Colleen pointed out. “This means we really _do_ have a lead on them.”

Jc agreed. Last night, he was a little unsettled by this revelation himself. Even so, he knew how much this could move them along. This only meant that they were one step closer to solving the mystery. They just needed to let everyone know a little more about what they were dealing with.

 

Safiya may have been having mixed feelings about this at one point or another, but she was quickly becoming more and more invested. She felt like an investigative reporter looking into a case about the paranormal. The more clues they found and the more pieces of the puzzle they put together, the more excited she was.

 _I wonder if this is how Velma Dinkley feels?_ she thought.

Safiya pulled the first page of the article close to her. “ _Alright…_ ” she said in a sly tone. It was a habit of hers when she was about to get down to business.

Joey smirked. “What was that?”

“It’s how I say ‘alright.’ _Alright?_ ”

Joey raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, cool.”

“According to what we found,” Safiya explained, “they were all teachers at the original school when they were alive. Simon’s late grandfather was a soldier for the Union states in the civil war. Simon wanted to be a military engineer in honor of his grandfather, but an injury caused him to have chronic back problems. He and his grandfather both shared a love of science, so Simon decided to be a chemistry teacher instead.”

“Aww,” Nikita said. “Good for him.”

“Yep,” Safiya agreed. “Robert was Simon’s cousin, and he got a job as a math teacher after hearing about how passionate Simon was. He’d been saving quite a lot to improve the school’s art, science and history programs. Catherine was an art teacher who had been dating Robert for almost five years. According to friends and family, they were deeply in love, and Catherine was planning to propose on their anniversary.”

Teala smiled. “A woman proposing to a man. _Love_ that.”

“I know, right?” Safiya agreed. “And in the 1910s, no less.”

Roi nodded thoughtfully. “So they _were_ tied to each other after all,” he said, shoving a couple more fries into his mouth.

“Yeah,” Safiya confirmed. “We figured all of that may have been at least part of the reason they were all buried together, but that wasn’t all we found.”

“What else did it say?” Nikita asked.

Matt grabbed a couple of papers. “I’ll get this next part,” he volunteered.

Safiya flashed him a thumbs up. She would have been able to handle doing research all by herself, but the Matt and Jc only added to their productivity. They were able to find a lot more information a lot faster when they were working together. She was glad to have both of them helping out the gang, even if they were just reading over some stuff. She was also starting to enjoy Jc’s company, as was Matt.

 

Matt skimmed over the next section of the article.  “There was supposed to be a chemistry experiment in one of the classes on March 17, 1911. Some bunsen burners were still being figured out, so the school thought it would be best to have a group of teachers helping out in the lab instead of only one. Unfortunately, though, tragedy struck. The explosion from the bunsen burners and chemicals ended up setting the lab on fire, and it spread really quickly. Robert, Simon and Catherine managed to get the students out. Most of them survived, some with injuries.”

Jc concluded their findings. “Two of the students, Cassidy Reeves and Stanley Brown, fifteen and sixteen respectively, were pretty severely injured. They were brought to a hospital, and the doctors did the best they could. The kids weren’t able to make it, and they were surrounded by doctors and family when they died. The three teachers ended up not being able to get out in time, and the classroom collapsed with them inside.”

An eerie silence fell upon the table. Matt’s heart felt heavy.

“That’s awful…” Teala muttered.

Rosanna stared down at the table. “Those poor people…”

Safiya sighed. “Honestly, I’m a little glad that I was wrong about those students dying in the school.”

“Why do you say that?” Manny asked.

“I know it’s kinda morbid,” Safiya continued, “but, well… think about it. Would you rather die in a burning classroom by yourself? Or would you rather spend the last few minutes of your life surrounded by doctors trying to help you, and family who loved you?”

Matt had to agree with that. If he had a choice, he’d absolutely rather get a chance to say goodbye to the people he loved. He couldn’t imagine what that must have been like. How scared everyone in the accident must have been. He turned to Safiya, and noticed a bit of hurt in her eyes.

“Safiya, it’s alright,” Matt told her. “You didn’t know about that last part.”

“I know,” Safiya said. “That’s the problem. I _assumed_ I did. I know I’m probably overthinking it, but it just feels like I disrespected the dead by getting it wrong. I’m sorry, guys.”

Joey gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s okay, Safiya, really.”

Rosanna rested her head on Safiya’s shoulder, and Matt put an arm around her. Safiya never minded too much if she was proven wrong, but she sometimes felt guilty if her mistakes hurt others. She and Matt were alike in that way.

Colleen pushed bits of her sandwich around. “Maybe that’s part of the reason why the teachers’ ghosts are here and their students aren’t.”

Teala’s voice sounded distant. “Because the kids were able to get closure with their loved ones.”

Matt thought that might have been right. Wherever those two kids were, he hoped they were in a better place.

 

Roi was excited about solving a mystery, but now he was really sad. And everyone else was sad, too. His club didn’t even look as appetizing anymore. All he could think about was those poor kids who died too soon, and the teachers with so many hopes for their lives and the school they loved so much.

_Those poor things. They just want to move on, and now they can't..._

Rosanna spoke up. “Well, let’s look at this another way. Maybe the ghosts aren’t necessarily here to terrorize us. They might need help.”

Maybe that was true. From what Roi knew about ghosts, they usually haunted a place because of a problem they had in life that they couldn’t solve. Maybe that was the case for _these_ ghosts.

“I think you’re right,” Roi said. “That must be why they’re looking for something… Maybe if we can solve the mystery, we’ll find what the ghosts are looking for. Then they can be put back to rest.”

“You guys think so?” Nikita asked.

“It’s worth a shot,” Jc told them.

“Yeah,” Roi replied, “This way, we’ll be helping the school, _and_ the ghosts. I think we can do it.”

Roi felt a burst of determination in his heart. They weren’t just solving a mystery anymore. They were on a rescue mission. They had to solve this mystery for the sake of the students and faculty of the school, and the ghosts who were trapped there.

 

Colleen took in everything that the group was saying. They were all contributing so much. No fights, no screaming at each other. She decided she wanted their investigation to stay that way. Now that they got most of the stuff they needed out of the way, she figured now was as good of a time as any.

She got everyone’s attention. “Hey, guys?”

Everyone turned to look at her. Colleen could feel her leg getting restless, and her palms started sweating. It felt worse than the nerves she used to get before a dance recital.

 _Just do it,_ she told herself. _Just apologize. The sooner you get this off your chest, the better it’ll be for everyone._

“I just…” she started.

_Say it._

So she did. “I wanted to apologize for acting like I’d been the past week. I really care about solving this, and I want to help you guys more. I can’t do that if I keep acting the way I did last night.”

“For real?” Manny asked. He sounded genuinely curious, not annoyed or dismissive like Colleen was worried about.

“For real,” Colleen assured him. “I’m _really_ sorry. I want to stop with all the tea being spilled, and all the fights and the drama. I want to start working _with_ you guys from now on.”

“She’s right,” Jc chimed in. “In fact, I think we _all_ need to keep that in mind if we’re going to solve this. It’s in everyone’s best interest if we all work together.”

Manny nodded, like he was listening closely and agreed. Matt and Safiya looked at each other thoughtfully. Rosanna, Teala and Roi smiled warmly at the table. Nikita maintained a blank expression, and Colleen couldn’t really tell what she was thinking. Jc flashed Colleen a quick smile that said, _I’m proud of you, buddy._

Colleen met eyes with Joey. She couldn’t quite read his face, and maybe she was imagining it, but she thought she could see the slightest trace of a smile. A genuine smile, almost like a smile that a friend would give.

 _Is it_ really _genuine?_

Try as she might, part of her was still mad at Joey. She still hated him, but it was more of a sad hatred. It was the kind of hate that she wished hadn’t harbored in her heart, but it was stuck there anyway. The subject of the hate was someone she used to truly value as a friend, and she wished that things hadn’t ended up the way they did. She wanted to stop hating him, but it was so damn hard.

Colleen clenched her fist under the table, held it, then unclenched it. She couldn’t afford to keep thinking like that. It was like Jc said, they couldn’t make any progress if they could only focus on fighting with each other. Besides, the tiniest, _tiniest_ part of her wanted to believe in Joey again. Maybe it would be different. Maybe it would make up for him not being there when things fell apart.

 

 _Kinda flip-floppy of you all,_ Nikita thought, _but okay._

Some of her fellow investigators were cool. Okay, _two_ of them were cool: Joey and Manny. If they weren’t there with her, Nikita would probably lose her mind.

Everyone else, though? Who gives a crap? They weren’t in this to make friends, they were in this to solve a damn mystery. She was completely willing to help, but she was absolutely _not_ going to be all buddy-buddy with the other seven.

 _You sure didn’t think that way when you saved Matt and Ro from that metric ton of encyclopedias yesterday,_ said a raisin in the back of her mind.

No time for that. Enough sap. They had to stay focused.

“Well, that being said,” Nikita spoke up, “where does that leave us?”

“Well,” Joey said, “we know about three of the ghosts now.” He turned to the three brainiacs at the other end of the table. “You guys didn’t find anything about a fourth teacher or anything, did you?”

“No,” Safiya replied. “We tried, but we could only find stuff on those three teachers and the two students.”

“Could it be the ghost of one of the kids?” Teala wondered aloud.

“I don’t think so,” Matt said. “Neither of the kids would have been wearing a black cloak from what we could find.”

“That,” Jc added, “and the Specter _definitely_ didn’t sound like a kid.”

That was true. From what Nikita could remember, the Specter’s voice was easily deep enough to be an adult. He looked pretty tall, too. Not to mention, unlike the other three ghosts, Nikita didn’t remember the Specter’s mouth moving when he spoke.

_Almost like it was part of a mask…_

And it clicked.

“Then we’ve got some bitch trying to mess with us,” Nikita realized.

 

Manny thought that was a pretty bold accusation, even for Nikita. Could it really be possible that there was someone trying to scare everyone away from the school? Would someone _really_ go as far as that?

“You think so?” Manny asked Nikita.

“Yeah, I do,” Nikita replied.

“Maybe she’s right, guys,” Matt said, which surprised Manny a little bit. “I mean, we didn’t find a fourth grave last night bunched up with the other three. And the Specter sure didn’t look like any of the other ghosts.”

Safiya added to his theory. “I once read that if a ghost is haunting somewhere, it’s usually for one or both of two reasons. The ghost will either have unfinished business, or they were summoned to haunt it.”

Manny registered that information. Unfinished business… that explained why the ghosts kept saying, “Give it back,” like a trio of spooky, murderous parrots. But the second part: summoning… something told Manny that they definitely weren’t choosing to remain in the school.

“In that case,” Manny said, “maybe we’re dealing with both. We’ve never seen these ghosts before this whole thing started.”

“That’s true,” Colleen said. “And it was only the three of the teachers who were saying, ‘Give it back…’ The Specter didn’t say that.”

Jc knit his eyebrows thoughtfully. “Maybe they were summoned _because_ they’re missing something? And now whoever summoned them won’t let them go.”

Rosanna scratched her head. “So these ghosts are being _forced_ to haunt the school?”

Roi nodded. “All the more reason we have to do something about it.”

Manny tried to put the pieces together. The more he thought about it, the more it started to make sense.

“So…” Nikita said, “that means… along with the whole summoning of three actual ghosts, there’s a mastermind behind it all.”

Matt nodded. “That’s gotta be it. Everything’s adding up to that.”

“But who is it?” Teala asked. “And why would they do all this?”

Joey slammed a fist into his palm. “That’s what we’re going to have to find out.”

Manny suddenly had an epiphany. “Oh, my God,” he gasped, putting his hands on Roi and Rosanna’s shoulders. “You guys, we’re literally living the whole, like, solving-clue fantasy!”

Everyone lit up at the sound of that. As nervous as Manny still was about the whole damn thing, he was getting pretty excited. It was starting to remind Manny of when he would watch Scooby-Doo reruns as a little kid, and he would try to solve the mysteries alongside Mystery Incorporated.

“So, what do we do now?” Safiya asked.

Joey replied, “If we’re sure about the Specter being a phony, we’ll have to go back and investigate the scene of the crime.”

“But it’s Saturday,” Manny pointed out. “The school’s closed. It might look pretty sketchy if people see a bunch of teenagers trying to break into a high school in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon.”

"Well we have to do _something,_ " Teala said. "Some of those clues might be thrown away if we don't get to them fast enough."

Roi’s eyes widened like he had an idea, and Manny was all down to hear it. If he looked that excited, it must have been good.

“In that case,” Roi suggested, “maybe we should break in at _night_.”

Never mind.

Teala choked on her water. “ _Huh?!_ ”

Manny agreed with that. What Roi was suggesting was the exact mistake that every stupid character makes in horror movies. And what happens to stupid characters in horror movies?

“You guys heard him,” Nikita said, and Manny could see it in her eyes that she was hungry for trouble. “Let’s freakin’ break into the school!”

_Nikita. Honey. Sweetie. I love you to pieces. The rest of you guys seem cool, too. But what the fuck?_

 

Joey was taken aback for a moment. Going to a cemetery in the dark was one thing. It was a whole other can of worms to break into a _haunted freaking school._ Then again, the part of his head that he wished would shut up knew they had a point. It had only been a day since they saw the ghosts. Maybe some clues would still be there.

“Are you guys sure about this?” Joey wanted to know.

“I think it might be a good idea,” Matt chimed in. “The security cameras are down for maintenance, remember? There’s no way anyone would know we were the ones who got inside as long as we’re careful.”

He might have been right. As long as they could do it in secret, maybe they would be okay. Besides, if they had a chance to get more clues, Joey wanted to take it.

“Well,” Joey decided, “I’m down if you guys are. What do you think?”

“Are you guys hearing what you’re saying?” Teala asked.

"Seriously!" Manny added. “I mean, we’re actually talking about-” He glanced around, as if to check if anyone was listening. “Breaking into a ghost infested school!” he hissed.

Matt spoke. “But one of those ghosts aren’t real. We just need to find what we need to prove that. Once we do, we’ll have the high ground.”

“I’m not totally against it,” Safiya chimed in, “but there’s one more problem. We’re still on Ms. Wilson’s and Mr. Cash’s hitlist. Even  _if_ we manage to slip past the ghosts, we could be expelled if we get caught.”

“Don’t worry, guys,” Rosanna assured them. “We’ll all be careful. Right, everyone?”

“ _Yeah_ we will!” Roi replied. Joey could tell he probably wanted to commit to that, but it sounded like something someone who wasn’t typically careful would say.

Colleen snickered. “Roi, you’re _literally_ the least careful person I know.”

“Well I’ll make an exception this time.”

“I’ll be careful,” Nikita said. But right after she said that, she asked, “Should I bring my bat?”

“Maybe not,” Joey said. “I don’t think a bat will work that well on ghosts.”

Nikita sighed a disappointed sigh. “Okay… I’ll still go, but it won't be as much fun without a bat.”

“I’ll go, too,” Manny said. “Someone has to keep you all from falling into a trap door or something.”

“Does the school have trap doors?” Roi asked.

“The auditorium does,” Rosanna replied.

“I’m down, too,” Colleen added. “We might find something important.”

“Yeah,” Matt said. “The more clues we find, the better.”

Safiya contemplated that for a moment. “Well, if it moves the investigation along, okay.”

“In that case,” Teala decided, “I’ll go for it if it'll help us.”

“Well,” Jc said, “I’ve never broken into a school before. But what the heck? Sounds like fun.”

Manny cocked his head at that. “I’m not sure if ‘fun’ is the word I’d use, but I’m not judging.”

Joey realized that Manny was right. They really _were_ turning into one of those old mystery cartoons, like Scooby-Doo. Except they were twice as large of a group. And they didn’t have a van yet. Or a snack named after any of them. Or a talking animal mascot. Quite frankly, the fact that they didn’t have a talking dog was very much of a bother.

_God, I wish we had a talking dog._

“Cool!” Joey exclaimed excitedly. “It’s settled then. Everyone meet back up at the school at nine tonight. And wear something black so it’ll be harder for people to see you.”

“Hear that, Saf?” Matt asked his friend who was conveniently clad in black. “You’re all set to go!”

That caused a few snickers from the rest of the gang.

Safiya stared at MatPat mischievously, then grabbed his bottle of diet coke. “You’re not gonna finish this, right?” she asked as she shoved the straw into her mouth and took a long sip.

“Hey!” Matt exclaimed.

He frantically tried to reach for it, all the while a guffawing Safiya held it out of his reach. Joey couldn’t help it. He burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray for teamwork and getting along! (for the most part)
> 
> Whew, this took longer than I wanted. Sorry this update took a while, guys. I kept writing and rewriting the chapter and not liking how it turned out. Writer's block is just SO MUCH FUN YOU GUYS!!  
> But yeah, here it is! I hope you guys liked it, and that you're all having a good day!
> 
> Next Time: Hmm... so we're in a giant, haunted school late at night, and we don't know where the ghosts might be hiding... LET'S SPLIT UP GANG!


	8. Let's Split Up, Gang

Everyone arrived promptly at nine that night. They all had some sort of excuse, be it spending the night at a friend’s house, working on a project, or just going out to hang out with someone. Colleen, Manny and Matt ended up being the designated drivers for the evening, both because the group didn’t want to arouse suspicion because of a missing car, and because the others legally couldn’t drive yet.

Roi was bunched up with the others, hiding in the student parking lot by a big, orange van with a yellow stripe surrounding the sides. He glanced around at his friends. All of them were dressed in black, like they agreed earlier that day. They all looked _awesome_ , and ready to get down to the search.

Roi pointed to the van they were all crouched by. “So, before we get into this, I gotta ask… whose van is this?”

Manny raised his hand. “Mine. It was sitting in my parents’ garage for a good while until I turned sixteen. We tuned her up a little, and now she’s my baby.”

“It’s cute!” Colleen commented.

“Why, thank you,” Manny replied proudly.

“Guys,” Nikita cut in. “Sorry to cut this short, but remember why we’re here.”

As cool as Manny’s van was, Nikita was right. They had a school to explore, and clues to find. And maybe ghosts to run from, but Roi hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

The gang peeked out from their hiding spot, and there was the campus. It looked a lot bigger at night when it was dark and abandoned. All the lights in all the buildings were turned off. The only light they could see came from street lights surrounding the campus. The scene was a little eerie, and Roi expected shadow to cross one of the windows at any moment.

Not that he was scared, mind you! No siree bob.

“So,” Roi whispered. “What’s the game plan?”

 

Rosanna watched as Joey did a double take between the group and the school. “First things first,” he said, “where do we know for _sure_ we should search?”

The entire campus consisted of four total buildings. The main building was the largest of the four. The first floor contained English classes, the auditorium, and the gym. The second floor was used for social studies, as well as more English classes. The third floor was reserved for the library, a computer lab, and foreign language classes. There was a separate building for choir and instrumental music classes. Another building was used for art, science and math. And then there was the cafeteria.

Rosanna pondered for a moment. They had a lot of clues that they needed to find, and a lot of room to explore. Surely there had to be _something_ hiding around for them to find. They just needed to figure out where to look.

“Well,” Safiya said, “we know we can probably rule out the music building.”

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “I don’t remember ever seeing anything spooky in there.”

As theatre students, Rosanna, Matt and Safiya took chorus as a way to train their voices. If anything creepy was going on in the music building, they’d know about it.

Manny nodded. “In that case, we can probably leave out the art and science building, too.”

“What about the cafeteria?” Colleen asked. “Should we cross that out, too?”

When Colleen said that, something nagged at Rosanna in the back of her mind. They technically hadn’t seen anything paranormal in the cafeteria. But then she thought back to when they first saw the Specter in the gym. And that smoke that was surrounding him…

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Rosanna told everyone.

“Huh?” Roi asked. “Why?”

Rosanna explained. “Remember when we saw the Specter in the gym for the first time? He was surrounded by some kind of smoke. Didn’t something about that smoke seem _off_ to you?”

Everyone exchanged glances, trying to think of anything.

Matt spoke up. “Well… it looked like smoke. It sure didn’t _smell_ like smoke, though.”

“No, it didn’t,” Rosanna agreed, glad that her unofficial brother was on top of things as usual. “It smelled like a burning _something_ , but it wasn’t quite smoke. I can’t place my finger on it, but it reminded me of something that might be used in a kitchen.”

As an aspiring baker, Rosanna had spent more than enough time in kitchens to know what different ingredients smelled like. She'd also _burned_ her fair share of ingredients. Whatever that “smoke” was, it had to be something like that.

“A kitchen?” Teala repeated. “Like… the kitchen in the cafeteria?”

“Probably,” Nikita said. “Maybe an ingredient he used is missing from there.”

Jc added, “We should keep that in mind when we're looking around.”

Rosanna smiled. She was so excited that everyone was helping each other, and working together to figure things out. They really were becoming a team.

“Okay, guys,” Rosanna said, “how do we want to do this?”

 

Joey thought back to the day they first saw the ghosts, along with everything they knew so far. A lot of things happened, and a lot of it was pretty far apart. Most of it took place in the main building, but something could have went down in the cafeteria as well. They had a lot of ground to cover, and not too much time.

“I think we might need to split up and look for clues,” Joey concluded. “We’ll find more evidence faster that way.”

Manny stared at Joey like he had just said something in another language. “Have you not watched horror movies before, honey?”

Teala nervously shifted from foot to foot. “He’s got a point, guys. We don’t know where the ghosts are. They could ambush us while we're by ourselves.”

Everyone else seemed hesitant about the idea as well. Joey knew they were probably right to be worried, but then he thought of something else.

“We won’t be going alone,” Joey assured everyone. “It might be safer if we go in groups.”

Matt nodded in agreement. “It _would_ be best if we all look out for each other. Besides, we’ll have to divide and conquer if we’re gonna be in and out of here quickly.”

Roi raised his hand. “If I might make a suggestion, maybe we should all go with some new people? It’ll give us a better idea of how everyone works.”

Everyone glanced at each other, as if silently asking if the others if they were okay with it.

“I think that sounds alright,” Joey said. “What do you guys think?”

“It doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Safiya said.

Teala nodded. “I’m cool with it if you guys are.”

Everyone muttered in agreement. Joey noticed that Nikita stayed silent for a bit, but she eventually nodded. Well, to be fair, they were a team. And a team needed to know everyone’s work methods in order to cooperate properly.

“I’m going to the gym,” Nikita said almost immediately. “That’s where we first saw the Specter. There _has_ to be some clue explaining how he was able to fly in there.”

“Me, too,” Rosanna added. “Maybe we can figure out what exploded while we're in there.”

Jc nodded. “There might be a way to tell where that light was coming from, too. I’ll go with you guys.”

 _Okay, not bad of a group,_ Joey figured.

Nikita was naturally fiercely determined whenever she put her mind to something. Rosanna might have been lacking in the size department, but she knew how to get stuff done. Jc proved himself to be plenty helpful to the group. Between the three of them, and all the stuff that happened in the gym the previous day, it would be a clue smorgasbord.

“Sounds like a plan, guys,” Joey said. “Anyone else have an idea of where they want to go?”

 

 _Yeah, alright, sure,_ Manny thought to himself. _Let’s split up. Not like there’s strength in numbers or anything!_

Well, at least they would still be in groups. It would be a disaster if everyone was just diddly bopping around on their own. As long as they stayed in groups, they’d have enough people to help each other escape if they needed to. Manny figured they kind of _did_ know what they were doing after all.

“I’ll check out the auditorium,” Matt volunteered. “If we’re right about the Specter being someone in a costume, we might be able to find some props or costume pieces he used.”

“I’ll go with you,” Teala offered.

Something popped into Manny’s head from earlier that day. “Hold up,” he said. “Aren’t there trap doors in the auditorium?”

“Yeah,” Rosanna replied. “They’re there so the actors can make a dramatic entrance.”

As much as Manny liked a good theatre fun fact, he was more concerned with the possibility of someone making a dramatic _exit_.

Teala took the opportunity to bring up what Manny was thinking. “How easy is it to fall through one of these trap doors?” she asked.

Safiya answered her question. “The trap doors are operated by some levers and stuff under the stage. They don’t open or close unless someone pulls them.”

“She’s right,” Matt assured everyone. “You’d need about twelve people and an elephant to break through them otherwise.”

Manny never really expected to think what he was about to think, but, _Thank God we have a group of theatre nerds with us._

That made Manny feel a little better about their chances. At least they wouldn’t have to worry about falling and breaking their legs. Still, Manny felt a need to make sure Matt and Teala would be okay. Even if they were safe from the classic haunted house trope that was trap doors, they could still run into trouble if they weren’t careful.

“I’ll stick with you two, then,” Manny told Matt and Teala. “Just to make sure you’re all good.”

Teala smiled gratefully at him. Manny figured she might have felt better about having such a big guy with them. It surprised him a little bit, considering their part in the mass argument a week ago. Sure, they hadn’t had that many interactions that day, but the few interactions they _did_ have weren’t exactly friendly.

Manny couldn’t quite tell what Matt was thinking about, however. If he was being honest, hearing that Matt wouldn’t want his help again a week ago hurt a little. Telling Matt that he’d carry out his promise of not helping him anymore was more of an emotional reaction than anything else.

When he thought about it by that point, Manny understood where both of his investigating buddies would have been coming from.

 _I_ was _acting like kind of a bitch… okay, a lot of a bitch…_

Maybe he’d get a chance to make up for it this way.

 

Jc glanced around, taking in the gang. Now that he had his own little group to search with, as well as Matt, Teala and Manny, all they needed to do was sort out where the last four would go. He knew that would mean that Colleen and Joey would most likely be in a group together. Jc would normally be worried about that, but Roi and Safiya would be with them, too. Roi was cool, and Safiya was chill. Jc had faith that they’d keep those two from fighting, and that the four of them would find some good clues together.

“Okay,” Jc said. “Where are you guys gonna go?”

Colleen replied, “I’ll check out the cafeteria. Ro said that smoke stuff smelled like something from a kitchen, right? Maybe we’ll find some clues that tell us what it was made with.

Jc nodded. “Cool, are the rest of you guys good with going with her?”

“Yeah,” Safiya replied.

“I’m down,” Joey added.

“I am, too,” Roi said. “If we’re going to the kitchen, though, we should keep an eye out for some extra chocolate pudding.”

“Pudding?” Joey asked, cracking a smile.

“Yeah,” Roi replied. “I’m telling you, the cooks hoard that stuff.”

“Well, in that case,” Colleen insisted, “what are we waiting for?”

"Oh, my God," Jc muttered, but he was smiling.

Teala laughed and rolled her eyes. “You guys and snacks, I swear.”

Jc and Teala have both come to expect that from Colleen and Roi. They were already pretty driven people, but food was an extra incentive when it was added to the mix. That conspiracy theory had been brought up enough times for it to be engraved in his and Teala's heads.

Rosanna’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Wait, really?”

Roi nodded. “I never really believed the lunch ladies when they tell us they ‘ran out.’”

Colleen added her piece, pretending to talk to one of the lunch ladies. “Like, girl, you only served  _two_ batches of pudding. How much more are you hiding, hmm?”

Rosanna beamed. “In that case, bring some back for the rest of us. There’s never a bad time for dessert.”

“Guys,” Jc said, “pudding's great, but we’re _right_ about to start-"

Rosanna’s face and voice became deadly serious. “There is never. A bad time. For _desert_ _._ ”

Jc was a little astonished. He hadn't seen anyone look at someone like that since the day someone accidentally knocked over Teala's coffee. It was a little intimidating.

Matt chuckled as he spoke. “Guys, please, if you value your lives, look for pudding.”

Safiya snickered. “Okay, okay. We’ll look for pudding if we _can._ ”

“Yay, thank you!” Rosanna exclaimed. It was almost like she hadn't just stared someone down with the fury of a thousand angry kittens.

“Woah,” Jc said. His smile was almost nervous. “I wouldn't have expected that from _you_ of all people here.”

Rosanna giggled. “Sorry about that.”

Jc kept the smile on his face, but it was more genuine than nervous by then. “No, it's alright, dude,” Jc assured her. “It was just kind of a surprise, that's all.”

_Looks like we have another foodie in the group. Go figure._

 

 _This is getting ridiculous,_ Nikita thought.

They were wasting time. They couldn't talk about pudding right now. They had their teams, they had a plan, and they needed to get the hell on with the damn thing.

She brought the gang back to the matter at hand. “Okay, now that _that's_ out of the way… there’s probably some stuff in the library, too. We should meet back up and search there after we’ve all finished up everywhere else.”

“Good idea,” Joey replied.

“Oh, and guys,” Safiya added. “One more thing: Vengeful spirits like these ones are the harder ones to deal with. We might be trying to help them, but they don’t know that, and they might not listen to reason. If you see any of them, don’t engage. _Run._ ”

Everyone nodded. It sounded like an easy enough plan:

  1. Split up.
  2. Look for clues in your respective areas.
  3. Meet up in the library afterwards.
  4. Book it if anyone sees the ghosts.



_Cool. Hopefully this won't be a_ total _train wreck._

“So… that’s everything?” Nikita asked the group.

Matt nodded. “I think so.”

“Just be careful, guys,” Rosanna cautioned.

Joey flashed everyone a thumbs-up, and pointed to the campus. “Okay, everyone. Let’s roll out.”

With that, the gang snuck away from the van, moving quickly and keeping low to the ground. Nikita went with Rosanna and Jc as they made their way to the main building. Manny, Matt and Teala crept toward the back of the building, probably to a back entrance to the auditorium. Joey, Colleen, Roi and Safiya slipped past them to the cafeteria.

When the subject of splitting up first came up, Nikita had been counting on going with Joey and Manny. She was a little disappointed, but the pair who volunteered to search with her would be fine. She might have had her doubts about Jc before, but at least he knew what he was doing. Rosanna might have been lacking in the size department, but she knew how to get shit done. Besides, when she thought of all the clues they could probably find in the gym, Nikita figured they had it in the fucking  _bag_.

 _This is fine,_ Nikita told herself. _As long as nothing too crazy happens, it'll be fine._

 

None of them noticed the Specter following them from a distance. The spirits of Ford, McLean and Jones were in tow. The four of them watched in silence as the ten children approached the campus. Some of them looked familiar, and the Specter realized that he’d indeed seen them before.

“Follow them,” he ordered his ghostly comrades.

The spirits did as they were told, each of them separating to follow one of the three groups. Good. That meddlesome group of kids would not get in the way of his plans. The Specter would make certain of that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it wouldn't be mystery without ill advisedly splitting up, now would it?
> 
> Next time: Let's start off with Team Gym, shall we?


	9. Not What We Thought

The main building had more than one entrance for Rosanna’s group to choose from. They probably couldn’t get in through a window without using a rock or a ladder, so one of the doors would have to do. They quickly decided on a side entrance underneath a connected walkway between the main and music buildings.

“Do you guys think the doors will work?” Rosanna asked.

“Let me see…” Nikita said. She yanked on the doors a couple of times, but they didn't budge. "No good. They're locked."

Rosanna frowned at their discovery. She hadn’t really been expecting it to be that easy, but it was a bit of a setback.

_Oh, well… we’ll think of something._

“I think these doors only lock from this side,” Jc told them, pointing at a little lock on one of the doors. “We can’t get in, but someone could come outside without a problem.”

Rosanna started to pull out her phone. “Should we text the theatre group to see if they can let us in somehow?”

As if on cue, they suddenly heard whistling from inside. Someone was coming, but it didn’t sound like their friends.

Rosanna froze. “Is that one of the ghosts?” she whispered.

“A security guard,” Jc replied. “I think he’s coming out this way!”

_Oh, no!_

Rosanna frantically scanned the area, trying to figure out what to do. They couldn’t get caught _now!_ They hadn’t even started yet!

 

 _Shit!_ Nikita exclaimed internally. _Shit, shit, shit!_

The school’s security guard already had it out for Nikita, which she didn’t really understand. It wasn’t like she’d ever broken the law before. Sure, she’d slapped a bitch in the face once or twice, but never to the point where she had to go to jail. If she got caught right at that moment, though, that would change.

“ _Hide!_ ” Nikita hissed.

They darted behind a row of bushes along the side of the building. Nikita nearly slipped and fell, but managed to make it just in time without a scratch. There wasn’t much space between the wall and the bushes, so she was wedged a little close to both of them. For some reason, she didn’t completely hate it.

Nikita kept a hand on Jc’s shoulder, but it was only to keep from falling over. That was it. She didn’t even protest when Rosanna gripped her hand. It just meant a little… extra balance.

The three of them watched as the security guard opened the door. They shrunk into the bushes, desperately trying to avoid being seen.

 _Come on, guy,_ Nikita thought. _Just keep walking and don’t look this way._

Much to Nikita’s relief, the guard kept walking. As the door slowly slid shut, Nikita realized that the door would lock again. She quickly grabbed a stone nestled next to her. She leaned forward and placed the stone between the door and the astragal. The stone stopped the door, leaving it slightly ajar, and pushed herself back into her hiding spot.

Rosanna carefully poked her head above the bushes. “He’s still going,” she whispered. “I think he’s leaving.”

Nikita and Jc pushed themselves up to look. As Rosanna had said, the guard was making his way towards a rusty, white pickup truck parked on the side of the road. When he got to the truck, Jc pulled the girls back down. They stayed crouched like that until they heard a _VROOOOM_.

 _Yeah, that’s right!_ Nikita thought. _You’d better run!_

She finally let herself take a breath.

 

Jc listened as the sound of the truck faded away. He had to admit, that was _not_ an ideal start to their investigation. On the bright side, they had one less problem to deal with: No security guard to stop them. But that being said, they needed to get inside.

“Let’s go!” Jc hissed.

They hurried out of their hiding spot. Nikita threw the door open, and Rosanna kicked the rock out of the way. Once they were safely in the corridor, they stopped and listened. Other than their panting, it was completely silent.

 _Awesome…_ Jc thought gratefully.

Jc hadn’t realized how tense he was until he leaned back against the lockers. “ _Whooooo_ , boy!” he exclaimed. “ _That_ was close!”

“Are you guys alright?” Nikita asked. Her normal hard exterior seemed to face away, replaced by a genuinely concerned expression.

“All good here,” Jc replied.

“Me, too,” Rosanna added, laughing nervously. “A little shaken up, but I’m good.”

“What about you, Nikita?” Jc asked her. “You were practically cutting off the blood flow to my arm out there.”

“So?” Nikita asked.

“Hey, it’s all good, dude,” Jc said. “Nobody here blames you for being scared.”

“I wasn’t scared, _dude_.” Nikita’s hard exterior suddenly returned.

“Are you sure?” asked a still chuckling Rosanna. “You were clutching my hand pretty hard.”

“Only because _you_ were clutching _mine_ first,” Nikita retorted. “Look, ‘scared’ isn’t the right word. I was _rationally concerned_ , okay?”

Rosanna threw her hands up in surrender, but Jc could hear the smile in her voice. “Okay, okay,” she told Nikita.

Jc wasn’t sure why Nikita was so touchy about admitting she was scared. It was a human thing to be scared. If she wasn’t scared, she’d be no different than the ghosts. Well, technically the ghosts were human, too… but still.

Oh, well. Now that they were safely inside, they might as well do what they went there to do. They gathered their bearings and made their way to the gym, flashlights in hand.

“We should let the others know we’re inside,” Rosanna suggested.

“I’m on it,” Jc replied, pulling out his phone and texting the group chat.

 

 **Jc** : we just saw a security guard leave. i think we have the campus to ourselves now.

Some of the others were quick to text back.

 **Matt** : Are you guys alright? Nobody saw you, right?

 **Jc** : yeah everyone’s good here. we just got inside. how about you all?

 ******Matt** : We just got under the stage.

 **Safiya** : we’re approaching the cafeteria as we speak.

 

 _Cool_ _,_ Jc thought. _We’re on track._

Jc pocketed his phone and kept going. After a few minutes of walking, and pointing their flashlights in the direction of any noise they heard, they arrived at the red double doors leading to the gym.

_I wonder if these doors are locked, too?_

 

What those random people might not have known about Nikita was that she’d seen a good dose of heist movies in her day. She knew more than one way to break into places. She scanned the walls around the doors, not really paying attention to her peers.

“Okay, guys,” Nikita told them. “Here’s the plan. There’s gotta be an air vent somewhere, right? I brought a quarter with me for this exact situation. All we need to do is find the vent and use the quarter to unscrew it.”

“Hey, guys?” Jc interrupted.

“Not now, Jc,” Nikita said. “Anyway, Rosanna’s the smallest, so she can crawl through the vents. Once she gets into the-”

“Nikita?” Rosanna cut in.

“What?”

This better have been important. Nikita was on a roll with that.

“I think the doors are unlocked,” Rosanna said.

Nikita blinked. “Huh?”

“They’re unlocked,” Jc repeated. He then proceeded to push the doors open without a problem. “We can just go inside.”

Nikita’s shoulders drooped. “Oh.”

_Dammit…_

Nikita was pretty disappointed. She was really hoping they’d get to do some badass break-in stuff. On the other hand, they’d just snuck into the school under a security guard’s nose. That was probably enough badass break-in stuff to make up for it for now.

“Alright,” Nikita said, keeping her head held high. “Let’s do this.”

 

The darkness in the gym reminded Rosanna of that Friday when they’d first seen the Specter. Now that there wasn’t a crowd of people running around in a panic, every little sound was more audible. Rosanna couldn’t tell if the echoing sound of footsteps was coming from them, or a ghost. It was much more eerie now that it was just the three of them.

 _At least it’s not just me in here,_ Rosanna thought to herself.

“Let’s start searching, guys,” Jc suggested. “There’s gotta be a clue around here somewhere.”

Rosanna started wandering around, pointing her flashlight in whatever direction her eyes were facing. They stepped a little further into the gym, and Rosanna took a whiff of the air. Whatever that smell had been was almost gone, but she could still detect the slightest bit of… something. Her eyes were already adjusted to the darkness, so she closed her eyes to give herself some extra initiative. She was thinking that if she only focused on her sense of smell, it would help. Evidently, it did.

“It’s still there a little bit,” Rosanna told them.

“That stuff you were smelling?” Nikita asked.

“Yeah.” Rosanna smelled the air again. It reminded her of every time she’d baked something and got ingredients all over the kitchen… which happened a lot. “It’s almost… starchy.”

Jc sniffed the air, as if to confirm what Rosanna said. “I think I smell it, too.”

Nikita followed their example, and concluded, “It’s coming from over there.” She pointed her flashlight where the Specter had first appeared.

The three of them approached the back of the gym to find a dark scorch on the hardwood floor. It wasn’t a small mark, that was for sure. It was about eight by eight feet, spread sporadically in charred blotches.

“What the hell?” Nikita muttered.

“What’s all this?” Jc asked.

It definitely looked like it could be from the explosion that they’d heard, but how did it get there?

One thing was for sure, though, and Rosanna said so. “You guys, this could be our first clue. All we need to do is figure out what it is.”

Rosanna pulled out her phone and jotted down a couple of notes. Nikita took a photo, and Jc scribbled in his pad.

 

  * __Black blotches on floor in gym__


  * _Starchy smell_



 

She was feeling better about this already. She was searching with two really cool people, and they’d already gotten something. Besides, it wasn’t just _them_ looking for clues. The rest of their friends were searching, too. Rosanna wondered what they were finding. She couldn’t wait to piece it all together once they all met back up.

Now that they were closer to the marks, though, the smell was getting stronger.

 _What the heck is that smell?_ Rosanna racked her brain, but nothing specific came up. She hoped it would come to her eventually.

 

“Let’s check around here,” Jc suggested. He figured there might be another little something laying around.

The three of them searched the floor near the marks. Jc kept a close eye out, trying to find anything that seemed off. It didn’t take him too long before he found something.

He knelt down to get a better look. It was a piece of fabric of some kind with a small, charred spot. It must have just barely survived the explosion. He picked it up to get a better look. It felt coarse in his hand, and he thought the burnt part might fall off if he wasn’t careful.

“Hey, guys!” Jc called to them. “I think I found something.”

“What is it?” Nikita asked.

Jc knitted his eyebrows. “Do you guys know what kind of fabric is this?”

He didn't really know his textiles, but Nikita and Rosanna both seemed to have pretty good fashion sense. Maybe _they’d_ know.

“Can I see it?” Rosanna asked. Jc handed the scrap to her, and she rubbed cloth between her fingers. “It feels rough. Almost like burlap, or canvas or something.” She passed it to Nikita.

“That’s usually pretty sturdy stuff,” Nikita said. “It might have been caught in the explosion. But what would burlap be doing here?”

Jc took the cloth back and inspected it closely. “Whatever it’s doing here, I think this could be another clue.”

“Awesome!” Rosanna beamed at the others. “We’re on a roll, guys!”

How long had they been in there? Ten minutes? They’d already found _two_ clues!

 _Get on our level, kitchen and theatre groups,_ Jc joked in his head.

“Right on, guys!” Jc said.

He held out his hand for a fistbump. Rosanna enthusiastically pounded back. He moved his hand over a bit so that Nikita could reach. She was jotting some notes down on her phone, not paying attention to Jc.

“Hey, Nikita?” Jc said, shaking his fist a bit.

Nikita looked up. “Huh? Oh, sorry.” She bumped him back, but it seemed more like an obligation. “I’m gonna look around some more,” she told them, and she started walking off.

“Hang on a sec, Nikita,” Jc said.

“What?”

Nikita stopped and turned around. She seemed to have kind of a sour attitude about something. She was still helping them find things, but she seemed pretty hostile. Maybe if they could get to the root of the problem, it would go a long way with her.

“Can I ask you something?” Jc asked.

“Make it fast,” Nikita said sharply.

“Did we do something wrong?”

“Huh?”

Rosanna jumped in. “I think he’s trying to ask if you’re mad at us.”

Yes, actually, that was _exactly_ what he was asking.

“No,” Nikita snapped. “Why does that matter?”

“It matters because we’re a team,” Jc replied. “If we’re going to work together, the best thing we can do is not act so much like strangers.”

Nikita rolled her eyes. “The best thing we can do is _look for clues._ I’ll pull my weight however I can, but just because we’re not strangers anymore doesn’t make us friends. In case you forgot, we didn’t exactly start off on a good foot.”

That sounded familiar. Jc’s brain immediately went back to his conversation with Colleen the night before. Maybe this wouldn’t be that much different talking it through with Nikita than it was was with Colleen.

“Well, you know,” Jc said, “Colleen said something like that to me last night. She told me that she wanted to help, but she was still iffy about everyone else.”

Jc thought he could hear Nikita mutter something like, “ _Bitch_ ,” but he ignored it. In these kinds of situations, it’s better to remain calm and collected when you’re trying to settle a disagreement like this. It’s just common sense. Granted, it didn’t work that one time, but maybe that was a one time thing. Hopefully.

“But look what’s going on now,” Jc continued. “She’s helping us solve this, and she was even willing to go with someone she didn’t trust before all this.”

“Yeah,” Rosanna agreed. “I bet they’re all out there finding a bunch of clues right now. And they’re all working with people they fought with before. That’s _gotta_ count for something, right?”

Nikita didn’t say anything. She was just kind of standing there, blinking. Jc couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but at least she was listening.

“Just think about it, okay?” Jc asked. He didn’t want to force her to be friends, but he didn’t want anybody hating each other either.

“Fine,” Nikita answered, rolling her eyes.

Jc watched as Nikita wandered off to look around some more. He figured that probably could have gone better, but at least no one was screaming at each other. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start at the very least.

It helped that Rosanna was there, too. He was used to solving conflicts on his own, but her presence really helped. And the fact that she was willing to be friends with everyone was something that Jc had rarely ever seen in anyone.

Speaking of Rosanna, she had a sort of dejected stare as Nikita walked off.

“What are you thinking, Ro?” Jc asked her.

 

Rosanna sighed and shrugged. “She’s not a bad person, Jc. I _really_ don’t think she is.”

“Yeah,” Jc said. “I don’t want to think she is, either.”

Try as she might, Rosanna just couldn’t bring herself to give up on Nikita. Sure, she’s heard stories about Nikita before, but Rosanna never wanted to believe that she was as mean and scary as people said she was. If she really _was_ like that, then why didn’t she hang out with people like Wilmer?

The only answer she could come up with was that Wilmer was a bully. Nikita didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be friends with a bully. She had better friends - _nicer_ friends - like Manny and Joey. Good people generally try to surround themselves with other good people, after all.

Rosanna looked up at Jc. “I mean, she saved me and Matt yesterday in the library when we were all being chased.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Catherine possessed a bookshelf full of these _huge_ encyclopedias. It was about to topple over and drop them on us, and Nikita helped get us out of the way. If she _really_ hated us, she could have just left us there, but she didn’t.”

“Wow… maybe she _does_ have a heart.” Jc half joked, but he probably meant it.

Rosanna nodded. “We can’t just keep expecting Nikita to do something bad all the time, you know? What would be the point of us being a team? I just wish she was a little more willing to give _us_ a chance, too.”

Jc nodded. “I hear you, little dude.”

Rosanna wasn’t the kind of person to immediately expect someone to be a jerk right off the bat. By the looks of it, Jc probably wasn’t either. Maybe some people would be a little hard to get close to at first, but it didn’t make them a jerk. If you only looked for the bad in people expecting to find it, you probably would. On the other hand, if you looked for the good in someone hoping to find it, you probably would. It was that simple.

She liked Jc and Nikita. Heck, she was starting to like _everyone_ they were investigating with. It would be sad if they all stopped talking when this was over.

Rosanna maneuvered her flashlight around the gym, trying to figure out where Nikita was. She didn’t want anyone wandering off too far. While she was searching, her light came across something that looked like a harness.

 _Huh, that’s weird,_ Rosanna thought. _The school doesn’t have a gymnastics team…_

 

Nikita shone her flashlight along the white walls, trying to find something else. She wished the clues had some kind of big sign with flashing lights that read, “ _Hey, over here! I’m a clue! Look at me!_ ”

She was trying to focus more on where she was looking than the conversation they’d just had, but it wasn’t really working. She didn’t have time to worry about the others right now. She had to focus on looking for clues and solving this.

She loved mysteries, and she’d always loved the idea of solving one. But she’d preferred the idea of going at them alone, or with people she was actually cool with. Besides, she’d been ready to be done with the others since their first fight in their first detention. After this, she’d never have to see any of them again.

_Who cares about any of these dorks?_

Then again, she was getting a little tired of being mad at Roi for snatching her wig, even if it _was_ an accident. And Matt and Safiya both seemed like they weren’t _total_ nerds. And Teala and Colleen didn’t really seem too bad. And Jc and Rosanna were starting to grow on her now that they were all together…

Not that any of that mattered! Not at all. Nope.

She was just about to give up with the wall, when she saw something that caught her interest. Next to one of the bleachers, just barely behind it, was something that looked like a mechanical box. It was puzzling; the way it was placed would have made it difficult to spot if someone weren’t paying attention.

“Well, hello there,” Nikita muttered to the box. “What are _you_ doing here?”

The box was just a bit bigger than a watermelon. A long cable was sticking out of the top. On the right side was something that looked like a light switch, and on the bottom left of the front was a red button.

By the time Nikita heard someone mutter something like, “What’s that?” she pushed the button. She heard a whirring noise as the cable quickly retracted inside the box, causing her to stumble back in surprise.

Jc and Rosanna both screamed from close by. Nikita whirled around just in time to see Jc fall from a couple of feet. He landed on his feet, then stumbled onto his hands and knees.

“ _Jc!_ ” Rosanna shrieked.

“Oh, my God!” Nikita cried out instinctively.

A loud _CLANK_ rang out from behind Nikita. She looked back at the box to find that the cord had stopped. She couldn’t worry about that now, though.

Nikita rushed over to the two of them, and the girls both helped Jc up. “What was that?!” Nikita blurted out. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah… I’m good.” Jc tried to shake off the shock.

“What happened?!” Nikita exclaimed.

Rosanna sounded like she’d just seen one of the ghosts. “Jc and I found a harness, and we were looking it over, and it just flew upward while he was holding it!”

Nikita blinked. “A harness?”

“Yeah,” Rosanna replied. “It was attached to some kind of cord, and it didn’t look like it belonged in here.”

Nikita pointed her flashlight upward. Just as they’d said, she could see a harness strapped to a cord high above them. It was still swinging back and forth from the sudden force. The cord itself seemed to loop through a round metal hook. Nikita followed the remainder of the cord to find that it ended at the mechanical box. The same box with the button she’d just pressed.

“You’re not hurt, are you?” Rosanna asked.

Jc shook his arms and legs around. “No missing limbs. No broken bones… yeah, I’m okay.”

There. Jc was okay. Nikita was assured of that.

But…

 _Holy shit,_ Nikita realized. _That could have been a lot worse…_

“I’m _so_ sorry,” Nikita said. “I pushed a button on a metal box over there, and I think it was connected to the cable. I didn’t know it would do that.”

Nikita felt terrible. How could she do something so stupid? If Manny were here, he’d probably chastise her for pushing a random-ass red button. In a loving way, sure, it if were _him_. But this was different. She and Manny were best friends. They jokingly scolded each other pretty often. These two… they hardly knew her.

And it wasn’t just that. Jc could have been seriously hurt because of Nikita’s mistake. What would have happened if he hadn’t let go in time? They probably hated her for that, not that she would blame them.

That’s why she was surprised when Jc let out a chuckle and said, “Between this and the security guard incident, I think all this adrenaline might be enough to count as my cardio for the day.”

It surprised Nikita even more when Rosanna pulled both of them into a hug. It was a tight, warm, motherly hug that said everything for Rosanna: “ _I love you both._ ”

They all pulled away after a moment. “I’m okay, guys,” Jc told them. “Don’t worry.”

“Are you sure?” Nikita asked.

“Totally. Don’t sweat it, man; accidents happen.”

Nikita felt the muscles in her face soften. She had to admit, she was touched by their ability to forgive so quickly. Not a lot of people would have been willing to do that for her except for Manny and Joey. It was kind of like a breath of fresh air for her.

 _Maybe these guys aren’t that bad after all,_ Nikita reluctantly decided.

 

Jc brushed off any leftover dirt that might have been on his shirt. He was still a little shaken up from his unexpected flight, but he wasn’t hurt and he didn’t die. As far as he was concerned, everything was cool.

“So…” Rosanna said, “now what?”

“Hey, Nikita,” Jc said, “you said you found a box that the harness might have been attached to.  Can you show us where it is?”

“Yeah, come on.” She led him and Rosanna over to the box in question, pointing her flashlight at it once they were close enough. “This is it,” she said.

“It looks like Nikita was right,” Rosanna said. “The harness is attached to that cord leading back to this box.”

Jc followed the cord with his flashlight, and the girls were right. But there was another thing he noticed.

“Did you flip that little switch on the side yet?” Jc asked Nikita.

“No, not yet,” Nikita replied.

“Go for it. Let’s see what happens.”

Nikita reached over and flipped the switch. For a split second, Jc wondered if he should have prepared himself for a falling piano, poison darts, or something of the like. Once the switch was flipped, though, the gym was immediately flooded with a dim, red light. To Jc’s pleasant surprise, it was the same red light that the gym had been immersed in when the Specter first appeared.

“Woah…” Nikita muttered. Her eyes were widened in awe. “That’s actually really cool.”

“Yep,” Jc agreed. Not only did the gym look cooler - if not a little creepy - but it was a good find for them. “You just found another clue, dude!”

“Yeah!” Rosanna exclaimed, giving a little applause. “Good job, Nikita!”

Nikita smiled. “Thanks.” Her tone was the softest, most genuine sounding that Jc had probably ever heard from her.

They flipped the lights back off so they wouldn’t raise suspicion from any unwelcomed observers. And with that, the three of them went back to wandering around the gym, pointing their flashlights at anything they could find, and inspecting little areas for anything else suspicious. After not finding anything for about ten minutes, the they started to realize how quiet it had been.

Rosanna glanced around nervously. “Doesn’t this seem weird to you guys?”

“Doesn’t what seem weird?” Jc asked.

“It’s been a while since we got here, and we’ve heard nothing from the ghosts at all.”

Rosanna had a point. They found a bunch of clues leading to the faux Specter, but there were no signs of the real ghosts. Jc was new to the whole ghost hunting thing, but he figured there was a likely possibility if they couldn’t find a ghost in a haunted location: The ghost was hiding from them.

“I wouldn’t be too worried about it,” Jc said. “If we haven’t seen them yet, it must mean they’re too chicken to face us. They know we’re onto their leader.”

Nikita smiled and shrugged. “I’d call that a lucky break, myself. Maybe they’re just scared of us.”

“Yeah,” Jc agreed. “I mean, think about it. We’ve searched the entire gym, and we haven’t seen any sign of them. Just signs that one of them is a giant phony. Once we all finish up here, we’ll _really_ have the upper hand on these ghouls.”

Rosanna nodded and smiled. That seemed to lift her spirits a bit (pun intended), but then she started blinking. A lot. “Uh, I have a question. What were the ghosts names again?”

“Robert, Simon and Catherine,” Jc replied. He was wondering where they were going with this.

“Uh-huh,” Nikita said. Her eyes were visibly wider than they were a second ago. “And was Robert the one in the suit and bowler hat?”

Jc nodded. “Yeah, that’s him. Why?” And then he noticed that the girls weren’t looking at him. They were looking at something behind him. “He’s right behind me, isn’t he?”

The girls nodded, and started backing away. Jc whirled around. Sure enough, Robert was, indeed, right behind him. He glared down at the trio, smiling smugly.

“ _Good evening, children,_ ” Robert said.

It occurred to Jc that there may have been a second possibility when it came to not seeing a ghost in a haunted location: The ghost was waiting to strike.

Out of habit, he tried to be calm. “Oh, hi there,” he said to Robert. He turned back to his friends, and his demeanor changed entirely as he realized what was going on. “ _Run!_ ” he exclaimed.

The three of them took off screaming, with the ghost of Robert Jones in hot pursuit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone I'm alive!!
> 
> I'm sorry it's been a while since I updated, everyone. I've mostly been focused on life stuff for the past month (mostly midterms, mental health stuff, getting ready to transfer colleges and move to a different city, all that fun stuff), and I generally haven't had much time for a lot of things. I'm hoping it'll all cool down now that the semester is wrapping up, and I'll be able to write more. Thanks so much for your patience over the past few weeks everyone!
> 
> Next time: Time to look for snacks - I mean clues - in the cafeteria! Oh, and some friendship stuff goes down, too.


	10. Sleuths, Snacks, and Sensitivity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any and all Stranger Things references were absolutely intentional (there aren't really that many, but still) ;)

Quite frankly, Safiya had no idea why she agreed to this. It was easy enough to tell her mom that she and Matt were staying over at Rosanna’s, considering that part was true. But here she was about to _break into a freaking school!_ The entire time Matt had been driving her and Rosanna there, her brain had been an endless stream of “ _What the hell are we doing?!_ ”

Forget the risk of more detention, or even expulsion; if someone caught them on school grounds at this time of the night, at this time of the week, they would likely go to _jail_.

The four of them were ducking down behind a little brick wall near the quad. The cafeteria was in sight, along with a covered walkway leading to it. Along with a roof, wooden poles and vertical slabs between them that people could use as benches lined the walkway’s path. It wasn’t much, but some cover would be better than nothing.

“Are we sure about this?” Safiya found herself asking.

“It’ll be okay, guys,” Joey assured them. “There’s no cameras, remember? All we need to do is get over there, and we’ll be good.”

“Yeah,” Roi agreed. “We _totally_ got this, guys.”

“So…” Safiya deduced, “we really don’t have any plan, other than to go sprinting willy nillly across the quad and hope we don’t get spotted?”

Colleen shrugged. “Technically, willy nilly sprinting _is_ a plan in a way.”

 _Not a very_ good _one, though,_ Safiya thought, but she decided not to say it out loud.

Joey raised his hand and whispered, “Okay, on three. One… two… _three!_ ” He swung his hand down, and started off.

They all dashed across the quad as quickly as they could. It was such a big, open space that they needed to watch themselves. While they were running, Safiya checked the windows of the main building to make sure there wasn’t anyone lurking around that she didn’t recognize. Thankfully, she hadn’t seen anyone.

 _I hope the others are okay,_ Safiya thought as she remembered everyone else. Of course she was worried about Matt and Rosanna, but she found herself concerned for the others as well. Were they growing on her already? Not that that was a particularly bad thing.

It wasn’t until they reached the covered walkways once they were closer that they felt it was safe to stand upright. They pulled out their flashlights and shone them around. The cafeteria wasn’t too far now, much to Safiya’s relief.

“There we go,” Joey said. “No problem at all.”

Safiya scanned the campus. There were no sirens wailing in the distance, and no cops or ghosts chasing after them. Maybe Joey was right. Maybe there _wasn’t_ anything to worry about.

Rio turned around, walking backwards so he was facing the others. “See, guys? We _got_ this.”

As he said that, he bumped into a trash bin. Roi scrambled to catch the bin, but ended up falling to the ground with it. A couple of fry trays and crumpled pieces of paper came spilling out. Roi pushed himself up, straightened up the bin, scooped up the debris and dumped it back inside.

Roi brushed himself off and cleared his throat. “Um… sorry.”

Colleen and Joey both laughed. Safiya didn’t quite feel like laughing yet, but she smiled as she rolled her eyes.

“Are you okay?” Joey asked, still laughing.

“Super,” Roi replied.

“Come on, goober,” Colleen said. “We have a kitchen to search.”

Roi flashed them all a thumbs up as they started walking again. As they walked, Safiya still couldn’t shake this nagging feeling of negativity in the back of her mind. She kept thinking back to their giant quarrel a week prior, specifically when she’d heard Manny and Colleen calling her “smartass” and “Princess Perfect.”

_Do they really think of me like that? Is that how I came off this whole time?_

That happened sometimes, especially when she was a bit younger. She would talk about something she knew a lot about, and people used to be put off by it. It didn’t happen as often now, but Safiya would still end up getting the idea that people thought of her like a stand-upish know-it-all. It felt like a bothersome little wasp buzzing around in her brain; it was small, and it probably didn’t matter that much, but it was there. And right now, it wouldn’t let her be excited about the idea of solving the mystery.

“Anyway,” Safiya said, trying to brush off her feelings, “what should we look for when we get there?”

 

Joey contemplated that for a moment as they made their way to the cafeteria. Compared to places like the gym, the auditorium or the library, the kitchen was an unusual place to look for clues. What kind of stuff could they find in there?

After a second of thinking, Joey decided, “We should keep an eye out for anything that looks out of the ordinary. Like some clutter, or a mess that’s been left behind.”

Roi added his piece. “There might be a trail of some kind, too. If the Specter really is fake, he probably wouldn’t have left any prints behind.”

Colleen spoke. “I’m still curious about whether or not those nightmares we’ve all been having have anything to do with this. We never really figured out what was up with those.”

 _That’s right… the nightmares,_ Joey remembered.

If the ten of them had been having the exact same dream for the past week, then there must have been a reason. Maybe it _was_ connected, but how?

“In any case,” Safiya said, “we might want to keep an eye out for suspicious characters. The Specter could be anyone at this point. It could even be someone we know.”

“Like who?” Joey asked. “I mean, a lot of us know different people from each other.”

Colleen sighed audibly.

“Huh?” Joey asked. “What’s wrong, Colleen?”

“What? Nothing.”

Joey and Colleen both slowed to a stop. Safiya and Roi stopped, too.

“If you have a problem with this, then say it,” Joey snapped.

“I _just_ said I didn’t have a problem,” Colleen retorted.

It wasn’t that Joey wanted to fight with Colleen, but he had no _freaking_ idea where they stood at this point. Sure, she’d apologized, but did she mean it?

But then he got a better look at her face. It was dark, but the flashlights helped a little bit. She didn’t look annoyed or angry. She looked almost… sad. Actually, it was more like her face was about to fall apart at any moment.

Safiya knitted her eyebrows and intervened. “Uh… forgive me for being out of the loop here, but what exactly is going on with you two?”

Roi answered the question. “They were best friends when they were kids.”

Joey figured Roi already had some idea of how Colleen felt about their past friendship. He wondered what Colleen had said about him.

Joey glanced at Colleen, then at Roi and Safiya, then at the ground. “Emphasis on _were_ best friends,” he told them quietly.

“You’re saying that like _I_ was the bad guy,” Colleen stated.

Bad guy? What the hell was Colleen talking about? Joey didn’t even know there was a bad guy to begin with. All he remembered was that they grew apart from being too busy to talk. At least, that was the case for _him._

“ _Ooooookay,_ ” Safiya said, raising her hands in surrender. “Never mind. I’m… sorry I asked.”

Roi motioned to the left. “Why don’t we all just get to the cafeteria? Seriously, this place is scary enough during the day.”

Joey took one last look at Colleen. Her eyes were glued to the ground. Despite himself, the sight made his heart sink a little.

“Yeah,” he told Roi. “Good idea. It’s not too much farther.”

As they kept walking, Joey couldn’t help but think about what Colleen had just said: “ _You’re saying that like_ I _was the bad guy._ ”

Now that he thought about it, he didn’t remember talking to Colleen much by the time seventh grade started. He’d hardly asked for any updates on Colleen’s classes, her life, nothing. The texts from his old friend seemed to gradually slow down, then they stopped.

 _What_ was _Colleen doing back then?_ Joey wondered.

 

“ _A lot of us know different people from each other,_ ” Joey had said.

Colleen kept her eyes glued to the ground. She knew she probably shouldn’t think too much about that, and it was a true statement anyway. Still… it sucked to hear that out loud. Yeah, she and Joey _didn’t_ know the same people. Not anymore, at least. And a big part of that was because they weren’t friends anymore.

They were almost to the front doors of the cafeteria when Safiya spoke. “I’m sorry, guys.”

“For what?” Joey asked.

Colleen lifted her face from the ground. For a short moment, she thought Safiya was apologizing for getting the student’s deaths wrong again, but it was for something else.

“For freaking out in the cafeteria,” Safiya explained. “And for calling you a neanderthal, Roi. I don’t know what came over me. I usually avoid that kind of thing like the plague.” Her voice became softer. “I’m sorry if I came off like…”

“Like what?” Colleen asked.

“Like an egotistical smartass. I don’t mean to, but I feel like I have a tendency to do that sometimes.”

Colleen’s heart did a sad little twinge. She thought back to what she’d said to Safiya about being a goody-two-shoes and putting herself above others. She even called her, “Princess Perfect.” Up until recently, she’d been certain of that, but now?

“Saf,” Colleen assured her, “you’re not an egotistical smartass. I shouldn’t have implied that. I’m sorry.”

Safiya blinked. She had already proven that in Colleen’s eyes. She was willing to share the credit with Jc and Matt when they were researching. She owned up to her mistake earlier that day, even if it was a small one. Despite whatever Safiya thought about herself, an egotistical smartass, she certainly was not.

To Colleen’s surprise, Roi was the next to speak. “I’m sorry, too.”

Colleen tilted her head. “Huh? What are _you_ sorry for?” she asked. “It’s not like you started that whole screaming frenzy.” From what Colleen remembered, Roi had tried to _defend_ her.

Roi just shrugged. “I mean, I didn’t really do anything to _stop_ it either. I was either staying quiet, or picking more fights with everyone else. I even thought I could somehow protect the rest of you when the ghosts first attacked.” He sighed. “If anyone’s egotistical out of the four of us, it’s me.”

“No, you’re not,” Joey interjected. “None of you are. It was a stressful day, and no one wanted to be there. Like I said, it was my fault everyone was stuck there.”

Colleen took a breath. “It was an accident,” she told Joey. “I just instigated it by throwing something back at you. Please don’t beat yourself up over it, okay?”

Joey glanced at her. Colleen almost expected him to call her a hypocrite or something, considering she’d been the one who pointed the blame at him. But he didn’t.

“Thanks,” Joey said instead.

“Yeah,” Colleen reaplied. “No worries.”

 _Wow,_ she realized. _That was probably the first somewhat pleasant interaction we’ve had in three years, wasn’t it?_

Looking back on it, it _was_ . And she liked the thought that she made him feel a little better. It felt more satisfying than giving him crap like she’d been doing for so long; mostly by returning the silent treatment he’d given her all those years ago. Now that she thought about it, though, was Joey even _aware_ that he was giving her the silent treatment?

“Jeez,” Colleen sighed. “That went from happy and cheery to depressing really quickly.”

Roi agreed. “Yeah. I think that pretty much meets my feels quota for the week.”

Joey chuckled. “Maybe some good ol’ fashioned clue hunting will lift our spirits.”

“Was that a pun?” Safiya asked.

“It wasn’t originally, but now that you pointed that out, yes. Yes, it was.”

Colleen let out a chuckle. She hadn’t realized she’d forgotten Joey’s sense of humor. She’d forgotten a lot of nice things about hanging out with Joey.

 _Maybe I should just cut him some slack and see how it goes,_ Colleen decided. Maybe they weren’t quite friends again just yet, but it was better than fighting with him.

 

Try as he might, Roi knew he wasn’t a superhero. He knew he might never save someone from a burning building, untie a damsel from train tracks, or stop a bank robber. He liked to think he’d at least get a kitten down from a tree one of these days, but that hasn’t happened yet. More recently speaking, he couldn’t even protect anyone from the ghosts. Not really.

Roi took a breath, trying to breath out the negative feelings he was just experiencing. That was a technique that he learned a long time ago. He imagined he was breathing in cool, calming air, and breathing out hot, sad/angry air.

 _There,_ he thought to himself once he felt a little better. _All gone._

Maybe he wasn’t a superhero, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t help people somehow. He was helping right now. He was about to look for clues with his friends, and they’d be one step closer to solving the mystery. One step closer bringing the ghosts back to the bright, hopeful people they used to be. One step closer to helping the three of them find peace. If anything, Roi felt better knowing that.

 _Watch yourself, Specter,_  Roi warned internally. _If you come anywhere near my friends, or do anything to those ghosts, I’ll… I’ll do something. Yeah, I’ll do something! And that goes for you, too, ghosts! But maybe a lesser something, since it’s kinda not your fault. Yeah..._

He wasn’t quite sure what that something was going to be, but he figured he’d cross that bridge if they got to it.

As they got closer, Roi heard Joey mutter, “Uh-oh.”

“What’s up?” Roi asked.

Safiya was showing Joey her phone. She said, “Apparently the gym group saw the security guard and didn’t get caught.”

“Are they okay?” Roi wanted to know.

“Yeah, they’re good,” Joey said. “They just got inside.”

“I’ll let them know where we are,” Safiya said, and started typing away on her phone.

_Whew, that’s a relief._

Once they finally reached the building, Roi didn’t really expect the door to open easily.

Joey tugged on the doors a couple of times. “Locked,” he confirmed.

“Lovely,” Roi said, and kicked a pebble out of frustration. “What do we do now?”

“Any chance you guys know how to pick locks?” Joey asked everyone.

“I do,” Safiya said, which concerned Roi a little bit. “Does anyone have a paper clip? Or a bobby pin?”

“Yeah,” Colleen replied, pulling a bobby pin out of her hair and handing it to Safiya.

“Thanks.”

“What are you doing?” Roi asked.

“Just watch,” Safiya said as she bent the pin out of shape and jammed it into the lock. She put her ear close to the lock, and jiggled the pin around. Safiya muttered as she tried to pick it. “Come on, baby… a little more… almost… just... son of a -” Something in the door made a little _click_. “Oh! Got it!”

Safiya pulled on the door. Once again, Roi wasn’t expecting it to work, but the door slid open with ease. It reminded Roi of something off of one of those action movies with people breaking into enemy territory.

“Woah!” Roi exclaimed. “Okay, _that_ was cool. How did you do that?”

“You don’t need to know that,” Safiya told them.

Everyone froze at the sound of that.

“Girl, _what?_ ” Joey asked.

Did that girl have some kind of secret criminal record that they didn’t know about? Was that why she always wore black? That’s it! She was a burglar!

Safiya tried to keep a straight face, but she cracked a smile after a moment. “Kidding! I’m just kidding! I locked myself out of my house once, and I just googled, ‘How to pick locks.’”

_Oh, okay. Never mind._

“Oh,” Colleen said. “Cool. Cool…”

“Yeah, of course,” Joey added. “ _Toooootally_ didn’t think you were secretly a burglar or something.”

“Me neither,” Roi added. Because he definitely didn’t think that. “Obviously.”

“Obviously,” Safiya repeated jokingly, then stepped out of the entryway. “Shall we?”

“We shall,” Joey confirmed, leading everyone inside.

 _Here we go,_ Roi thought. He believed in his friends, and he was starting to believe in himself again. _We can find something in here. I know we can! We’ve still got this!_

 

As they walked to the kitchen, Joey couldn’t help but be reminded of how stagnating the air in the building had been this past week. Between the stink eyes from the lunch ladies and Jerry the janitor while he was eating, the cafeteria hadn’t seemed as friendly.

“Y’know,” Joey said, “this place hasn’t seemed as nice for the last week.”

“I’m surprised they’re letting _anyone_ eat in here after all that,” Safiya added.

“Seriously,” Roi agreed. “I wouldn’t be surprised if someone tried to spit in my food while I wasn’t looking.”

“Same here,” Colleen said. “I think I’m done eating in here for a while.”

Roi shrugged. “Y’know, the quad is always an option. People eat out there all the time. We could eat there instead.”

Joey thought that might be a good idea. The weather was warming up again, and the fresh air would probably do everyone some good. Along with that, Joey thought about the word, “we.” He found himself imagining eating lunch with all nine of the others outside on a regular basis. Frankly, he kinda liked the thought of that.

First things first, though. They had clues to look for.

They went into one of the entryways for the lunch lines on the far right side of the building. Just behind the empty food trays was one of the doorways to the kitchen. As Safiya was asking if she needed to pick the lock again, Joey turned the knob and opened the door.

“Huh,” Joey murmured. “I guess there’s not much need to lock the doors of an already empty and locked building.”

The four of them filed into the kitchen. It looked like how Joey would imagine a restaurant's kitchen might look. A grey tile floor, white walls, and big bar in the middle with a few sinks built into it. There were several shelves, cabinets and counters along the walls, and a big fridge in the back.

“Okay, gang,” Joey said. “Let’s split up and start searching. Roi, Colleen, you guys start off in the back. Safiya, you come with me.”

Everyone agreed, and the pairs went off in search of some evidence.

 

_Clues, clues, clues…_

Roi repeated the phrase in his head as he searched. He kept an eye out for anything that looked out of place, shining his flashlight in search of anything that might have seemed suspicious.

As he searched, he found a row of little glass salt shakers. He picked one of them up to inspect it, and it was full.

 _Aren’t vengeful spirits allergic to this stuff or something?_ Roi wondered.

He didn’t want to hurt the ghosts if he didn’t have to, but it one of them tried to attack them, he had to be ready to defend himself and his friends. Or if it was the Specter, Roi could probably throw it at him to disorient him. He pocketed the salt shaker, just to be on the safe side.

Once he got to the very end of the kitchen, he opened the fridge. Along with standard food items, he figured there might be some stuff that could be used to make a makeshift explosive. When the door was opened, resting just at eye level were stacks upon stacks of chocolate pudding cups.

_We’ve hit the motherload, boys!_

He’d almost forgotten about the pudding! How could he forget about the pudding?!

“I found it!” Roi exclaimed, hoping the nearest person would hear him.

It turned out Colleen, his clue hunting partner, was said nearest person. “You found a clue?” she asked.

“No, but I found the pudding!”

“Oh, _hell_ yeah! Way to go, buddy!”

Roi gazed in awe at the bounty of chocolaty goodness. The cups were all piled up neatly on the middle shelf so that Roi could clearly see them. There were probably _dozens_ of them! They were all bathed in a glorious white light, and cool air spilled out of the fridge that held them.

Was this Heaven? If it was, Roi didn’t want to wake up.

“I _knew_ it was in here somewhere,” Colleen said, rubbing her hands together. “I _knew_ it! Always lying, saying they’re out. Hah! We showed _them_.”

“ _JOEY! SAFIYA!_ ” Roi yelled at the top of his lungs. “ _WE FOUND THE CHOCOLATE PUDDING!!!_ ” His voice cracked when he said, “pudding.”

“ _Shhh!_ ” Safiya hissed from close by. “Do you want the whole _city_ to know we’re here?!”

“Guys, look!” Colleen exclaimed, ecstatically pointing at the open fridge. “Pudding!”

Roi grabbed a cup from the fridge. “We hit the jackpot, guys!” He ripped off the top and jammed his hand into the pudding, licking it off his fingers.

Safiya rolled her eyes. “At least use a spoon, Roi! Gross.” But Roi could tell she was trying not to laugh.

“Hey,” Roi retorted “if you know where the spoons are, feel free to let me know.”

“Can I have some?” Joey asked cautiously as he made his way over to them.

Roi and Colleen exchanged glances. Colleen smiled and nodded.

“Yep,” Colleen said, grabbing a pudding cup and tossing it at Joey. “Pudding in up, puddin’.”

Joey caught the pudding, nearly dropping it. “Thank you very much,” he chirped.

That made Roi happy. He’d heard stories a few times from Colleen about when she and Joey were closer, although some of those stories were followed by tears. After all that time, it was nice to see Colleen and Joey finally getting along again. Maybe it would get a little better with how it was going now. Maybe it would get better with everyone else, too. That was what it was looking like, at least.

 

“Uh, hey, guys?” Safiya stammered. “Is now _really_ the best time to be eating pudding? Without _spoons,_ might I add?”

They’d just gotten to the kitchen. They were supposed to be looking for clues and they hadn’t even found anything yet. What if someone came in and saw them? What if one of the ghosts caught them? As much as Safiya was enjoying looking for clues, she didn’t want either of those things to happen.

“Safiya,” Joey said, “sometimes, you gotta learn to appreciate the simpler things in life.”

“What does that mean?” Safiya asked.

Roi answered her question between bites of pudding. “It means, if you happen to stumble across a mountain of pudding, _eat it._ ”

“Honestly, girl,” Colleen said, “what is self love if you don’t take pudding breaks?”

Well, when they put it that way, self love _was_ pretty important. Besides, Safiya couldn’t remember the last time she’d had pudding. She had a chance now, so…

“Can you guys toss me some?” Safiya asked as she walked to the fridge.

“Sure,” Joey replied. He pulled out a pudding cup and tossed it in her direction. “Catch!”

Safiya caught the pudding. “Thanks, Joey.”

She examined the cup in her hands. Remembering that they still didn’t know where the spoons were, she peeled off the cover, and folded it into a makeshift spoon head.

Colleen seemed to be impressed. “Damn, why didn’t I think of that?”

Safiya was starting to feel better. She was liking this a lot better than the fighting. It was finally starting to feel like an adventure with friends instead of working with strangers who tolerated each other.

“I’ll tell you what, guys,” Safiya said as she took a bite. “If Ro were here, she’d be _all over_ this pudding.”

“Really?” Colleen asked.

“Oh, yeah. Her sweet tooth is bigger than _she_ is. I swear, she’d probably be on her fifth or sixth cup by now.”

“So, Saf,” Joey said, starting on another cup himself. “I got a question for ya.”

“Spill.”

“How did you meet those two? MatPat and Ro?”

Safiya got that question every so often, but coming from Joey, it seemed more polite and out of curiosity. She prefered that much better than the usual, “Wait, _those_ two are your best friends?” that she would get from others. She figured people asked her that because she occasionally tended to be more serious than Matt and Rosanna. Some people couldn’t see how she got along with them so well, but they didn’t know their origin story. They also didn’t know how much they all loved each other.

“I met them at the start of freshman year,” Safiya told the others. “My family and I had just moved here from Chicago. Starting high school is one thing, but it’s a _whole_ other mess when you start two-thousand miles away from where you grew up. I was in a new school in a new state, and I didn’t really have any friends.”

“Aww,” Roi said. “That sounds like it sucked.”

“It did for a while,” Safiya agreed. “Thankfully, that didn’t last long. We were told to get into teams to act out a scene for a class performance one week, and MatPat and Ro invited me to do it with them. At first, I was worried that I was just third-wheeling a pair of best friends. Which is a lot more awkward than third-wheeling a couple, in my opinion.”

Colleen nodded.  “Amen, girl.”

“But it wasn’t like that. We all worked really well together. We got to know each other, and we ended up getting closer. They really welcomed me here when I was feeling alone.”

 

Joey chimed in. “That’s kinda like how it was for me with Manny and Nikita. Well, the two-best-friends-welcoming-me part, not the theatre stuff.”

“Oh?” Safiya asked. “Do tell.”

Colleen was curious about that, too. Whenever Manny’s or Nikita’s names popped up, Colleen thought of someone like Regina George, or Sharpay Evans. Joey had always been a bit on the sassy side himself, but how did he become friends with _those_ two, she wondered?

“I met them freshman year, too,” Joey started. “I didn’t have classes with a lot of people I knew, and I was basically the epitome of a confused freshman trying his damn best.”

“Sounds like me,” Colleen found herself joking. “Other than the ‘freshman’ part.” The others offered a couple of laughs at that.

“Anyway,” Joey continued. “I was late to my bio class one day. The teacher said we were doing partner projects about the ‘Biodiversity of Fungi’ or something, and everyone already had a partner. Thankfully, they got my attention and asked if I wanted to work with them in a group of three.”

“Really?” Colleen asked.

Being singled out for partner projects was the absolute _worst._ It always felt like some kind of upsetting confirmation of how your peers saw you. Hearing that Manny and Nikita were both willing to let Joey - a complete stranger at the time - work with them said something about them. Colleen certainly wouldn’t have expected that, but it was a nice surprise.

Joey smiled and nodded. “Yeah. It turned out we had more classes together, and we ended up bonding a lot. I know they come off as a couple of mean girls sometimes, but they’re both really cool once you get to know them.”

Roi raised his hand. “Does Nikita usually try to murder people if they mess with her hair?”

“Did that happen to you?” Joey asked him.

“Yep. I accidentally pulled it off her head last week.”

Colleen was worried Joey would get mad at him like Manny had. But instead, he just started laughing. “I’m really sorry about that,” he chortled. “She’s a little defensive about that kind of thing.”

To Colleen’s surprise, Roi laughed with him. “Well, it wasn’t that great when she was hunting me down, but it’s fine.”

Colleen smiled. One of the things she appreciated about Roi was his ability to forgive people. Anyone else might have thought of it as naive, but people who knew him knew that he just liked being a good person. He was more than willing to forgive people for their mistakes, and give them a second chance.

If her friends were willing to give Manny and Nikita a chance, Colleen was, too.

Safiya turned to Colleen and Roi. “And you guys? How’d you guys meet, since we’re all sharing.”

Colleen had to admit, she was liking this! She liked hearing everyone’s stories of how they met their friends, and how cool they were in their eyes. That was the kind of thing she loved: people talking and gushing about their friends and hearing about how much they loved each other. It always made her heart feel all warm.

Roi started the story off after opening another pudding cup. “Jc and I met each other first. You guys might not believe this, but I was pretty hyperactive as a kid.”

Safiya gasped and feigned shock. “ _What?_ ”

“ _No!_ ” Joey gasped.

“That has _never_ occurred to me once, _ever,_ ” Colleen joked, even though she’d heard this story before.

“It’s true!” Roi continued. “Because of that, I guess a lot of the other kids thought I was weird or something. A lot of them would avoid me, but then Jc walked up to me one day and asked if I wanted to play with him. And I was like, ‘yeah, man!’ We met Teala a few years later. She was new to our school, and she was really shy. It took a little bit for her to open up, but once she did, she was a lot of fun to hang out with.”

“She still is,” Colleen added. “They all are.”

“Colleen popped up after that,” Roi said.

“Oh?” Joey asked, then turned to Colleen. “Pray tell, ma’am.”

Colleen thought back to all those years ago. “Well, I was kinda by myself for a while. Eighth grade just started, and I was sitting alone on a bench at recess on the first day.” Colleen pointed at Roi. “ _This_ little nugget walks _right_ up to me and goes, ‘Hey, wanna see me do a flip?’ And I didn’t even get to answer before he swung his leg back and forth, leaped into the air, and landed flat on his back.”

“Hey!” Roi interjected. “It was cool, and you know it!”

“It looked like something from a ‘Peanuts’ special!” Everyone laughed, and Colleen concluded her story. “Anyway, he had classes with me, but we hadn’t talked until then. I asked him why he did that, and he told me that he saw how sad I was and he wanted to make me smile. We were both, like, thirteen at the time, so I thought he was flirting with me or something, but no. He was genuinely trying to be my friend. He offered to introduce me to his friends, and I was like, ‘sure.’”

“And I’m guessing those friends were Jc and Teala?” Joey asked, scooping a bit of pudding into his mouth.

“That’s right.”

Roi’s eyes lit up next to her. “Hey! We all have something in common!” he observed.

“What’s that?” Safiya asked.

“We were all welcomed by our friends.”

Colleen’s heart felt warm at the sound of that. Roi was right. Maybe they’d all had their doubts about their new friends at first, but as time went on, they became inseparable.

 

Joey had just finished a third pudding cup when he remembered what they were doing. “Oh! Guys?” Joey said. “Not that this isn’t nice, but we still haven’t found any clues.”

“Mmph!” Safiya gasped mid-bite, setting down her cup. “He’s right. We gotta get back to it.”

Joey and the others followed Safiya’s example and set down their pudding cups. They could probably throw them away once they were done looking around some more.

“Ready to search again, Saf?” Joey asked.

“Actually,” Safiya said, “I think you and Colleen should search together.”

Joey felt his chest tighten at the sound of that. Sure, the two of them had been getting along better for a short while, but Joey wasn’t sure how well searching with Colleen would fair.

“I agree,” Roi said before Joey or Colleen could say otherwise. “Maybe you guys should, y’know… work some things out.”

“What do you think, Joey?” Colleen asked him. She was probably unsure about this, too.

“Uh, yeah,” Joey decided hesitantly. “Okay.”

Roi flashed both of them a thumbs up, then went over to join Safiya. Joey watched as they walked off to start up their search once more. Wordlessly, Colleen shut the fridge, and they went back to work.

 _Sooooo… here we are,_ Joey thought. _Searching for clues. Me and my ex-best friend who probably still hates my guts… yep. This is great._

It was _not_ great. Joey felt like a rock with arms and legs. It was the exact kind of awkward situation that Joey would rather have not been in. He would quite _literally_ rather be searching with a stick. Preferably a stick from an oak tree. Those were nice.

“See anything?” Colleen asked, pulling Joey out of his internal panic.

“Nope,” Joey replied. “Are you, like, okay?” He wasn’t really sure what else to say.

Colleen nodded. “Yeah. I’m good.”

Something told Joey that she was not, in fact, good.

_Is she mad about our argument outside?_

“Hey,” Joey started. “I’m sorry about the whole interrogation thing outside. Maybe that was a little overboard.”

Colleen shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

Okay, they weren’t yelling at each other. So far, so good. Even so, the air between them was still pretty rigid. Joey thought back to earlier that day: everyone agreed that they couldn’t have anymore drama. “ _It’s in everyone’s best interest if we all work together,_ ” Jc had said. Joey agreed. He decided he wanted to clear the air as much as they could with whatever time they still had in there.

He got her attention. “Colleen?”

“Huh?”

“Seriously. What’s been going on? Why have you so mad at me this whole time?”

 

Colleen started to snap. “I’m not mad at-” She stopped herself after she saw the look on Joey’s face. He looked a little taken aback.

_Dammit. I’m doing it again._

“I’m sorry,” Colleen muttered.

“It’s okay.”

 _Enough of this,_ Colleen decided.

She was tired of this. She was tired of getting mad at Joey. She was tired of holding onto the anger she’d had for him over the past three years. Maybe that anger didn’t always show, but if she thought too much, it would get worse and ruin her day.

No more. She was done letting it control her. She needed to set things right with Joey. She _wanted_ to set things right with Joey.

“The thing is…” Colleen started. It still hurt a little to talk about. “A lot of stuff happened a few years ago. I never really got to see you, so I couldn’t meet up with you to talk about it. I tried calling and texting you, but you didn’t respond that much at first. Then you stopped responding all together. So I stopped trying.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, I did. You didn’t notice?”

Joey shook his head. “I don’t think I really paid much attention to my phone back then.”

Colleen’s chest felt heavy. “Oh…”

 _So he really_ didn’t _know…_

Sure, looking back on it, nothing unspeakably disastrous happened back then. No one died, and her house didn’t burn down in a fire. Nothing like that happened, but she was hurt because of what _did_ happen. She was hurting for a lot of reasons other than the fact that they’d stopped being friends. All this time, she blamed Joey for being a big part of those reasons, but he didn’t even _know_ she was hurting. All she’d been doing to Joey was making him hurt, too.

Colleen sighed and kept speaking. “I meant it when I said I didn’t want to fight with anyone anymore. And that includes you. I _really_ am sorry I gave you so much shit over the past week.”

Joey’s eyes glossed over, and he started blinking. A lot. “For what it’s worth. I don’t want to fight with you anymore either. Especially not now that I was just recently starting to remember what it was like to be your friend.”

“For real?”

“For real.”

Colleen felt her heart crumble a little bit with every word. He sounded genuinely sad, like he really _did_ miss being friends with her. If Colleen was being honest with herself, she missed being his friend, too.

But there was only one way to know for sure. One way to be absolutely certain that he was serious about this.

Colleen held up her hand. “Do you remember?” she asked hopefully.

Thankfully, when Joey saw Colleen’s hand raised like that, he smiled knowingly. He knew _exactly_ what she was talking about. He high fived her, and they both began their little handshake from when they were kids. It wasn’t too overly complicated, but just difficult enough to need to be memorized.

When they finished, Colleen happily remarked, “You _do_ remember!”

“How could I not?” Joey asked. “I came up with, like, half of it.”

“Oh, yeah…” Colleen chuckled, “I forgot.”

For the first time in three years, Colleen felt _good_ around Joey. She was happy and comfortable, like someone would normally feel about being around their best friend.

“What happened to us?” Joey asked. “What went on with you after we stopped hanging out?”

Colleen sighed. “It’s kind of a long story. You see -”

Before Colleen could go into detail, they heard Safiya calling out to them. “Guys, come here! Roi and I found something!”

Joey turned to look in their direction. Safiya and Roi were both kneeling next to a trash bin at the far end of the kitchen.

“Coming!” He turned back to Colleen.

“Can we talk about this later?” she asked.

“Definitely,” Joey assured her. “This conversation is _far_ from over, sister.”

Admittedly, Colleen was a little frustrated as they went to rejoin their friends. She _really_ wanted to get this off her chest already. She was so ready to have some closure with Joey so they could be cool again. But they had a job to do. She reminded herself that they’d talk soon. Everything would be okay. She just needed to be patient.

 

Joey and Colleen had just arrived at the trash bins by the time Safiya and Roi had finished counting the empty bags of flour. Safiya shone her light around the torn, empty bags. There were at least a dozen or so that she could see. Some of them had even fallen out of the bin.

“What’s up, guys?” Joey asked.

Safiya and Roi couldn’t hear their conversation from where they were, but from the looks of it, it went well. That was good.

“Check this out,” Safiya said, pointing her flashlight at the overflowing bin.

“Wow,” Colleen remarked. “Was someone doing some serious baking in here, or what?”

“Maybe,” Roi said. “Or it’s a clue.”

“How is it a clue?” Joey asked.

Safiya explained. “It might have been part of the explosion. Flour is flammable if there’s enough heat. It even stays lit if there’s some dust suspended in the air. If something lit it on fire really suddenly, it might have caused a reaction.”

“You better _work_ , Tesla!” Joey chortled.

Safiya smiled. She didn’t like showing off, but she sometimes let herself feel a little bit of pride in knowing things about stuff.

“How much is in there?” Colleen asked.

“A lot, probably,” Safiya guessed. “The bin is overflowing.”

Roi grabbed a couple of bags, pushed them aside, and stuck his hand a bit deeper. Before he could get too far, he suddenly stopped. “What the-?!” he exclaimed.

“What?” Joey said.

Roi knit his eyebrows. “There’s something weird in here.”

Safiya approached the trash bin. “What do you mean?”

She hastily brushed the rest of the bags out of the way. They all fell out of the bin and onto the floor. As it turned out, there _were_ a little more than a dozen bags, but not enough to fill the entire bin. The rest of it was filled with some kind of powdery substance.

“What in the world?!” Safiya blurted out.

Colleen cocked her head. “Is that flour?”

Joey reached over and pinched up a bit of the powder. “Weird… it doesn’t _feel_ like flour.”

“Let me see,” Roi said, following Joey’s example and picking up a bit of… whatever the heck that stuff was. “Hmm…” he muttered.

Safiya brushed her hand over the surface. It felt loose and grainy, definitely not like flour. “He’s right,” she observed. “It’s too rough and loose to be flour.”

Colleen shone her flashlight over the top of the bin, and stopped suddenly. “What’s that?” She asked.

“Where?” Safiya asked.

“There.”

Colleen shone her flashlight on what looked like a little green triangle. Curious, Safiya reached over, and grabbed the triangle. The little triangle turned into a bigger triangle, then the triangle turned into a flat, square-shaped box the size of Safiya’s forearm.

Joey’s mouth turned into an almost perfect O. “What in the optical illusions is _that_ doing in there?”

 _This just keeps getting weirder,_ Safiya thought to herself.

“What does it say?” Roi asked.

Colleen knit her eyebrows as she read. “It says, ‘Safety Fuse.’”

“A safety fuse?” Roi repeated, like it sounded familiar to him. “That’s the kind of thing you’d find on fireworks, or those little rockets you launch into the sky.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Joey mused, “it could be used to blow something up?”

“Yeah, exactly!” Roi replied excitedly.

“In any case,” Safiya concluded, “I think these could all count as clues!”

Everyone lit up at the sound of that. Safiya felt elated, more so than she’d felt all night. She couldn’t believe they’d found all those clues in the same place so quickly. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

 

Roi was right to believe in his team. They’d found a bunch of clues after all! They totally _did_ have this!

They didn’t have much time to celebrate, though, when a low voice echoed throughout the cafeteria. “ _Hellooooooooo..?_ ” It sounded like the voice of Robert Jones.

Everyone jumped. Their excitement was immediately replaced by fear.

“Was… was that Robert?” Colleen stammered quietly.

“That was Robert,” Joey confirmed cautiously.

“ _Hide!_ ” Safiya hissed.

The four of them rushed over to one of the counters, and pulled open the cabinet doors underneath. It looked big enough for them to hide inside. They clambered into the tiny space and stayed as still and quiet as they could.

Roi was squished between Colleen and the right of the cabinet. He peeked through a crack between the door and the hinges, and he could just barely make out Robert’s figure. He didn’t seem to be looking for them in the right places.

“ _Come out, come out, wherever you aaarrreee…_ ” Robert called out.

 _No, thank you!_ Roi thought.

Roi kept telling himself that they’d be fine. This was _totally_ okay. Robert hadn’t seen them hiding. That stupid ghost probably didn’t even know they were there.

_This is fine. This is fine. Everything is fine!_

“Do you think he saw us?” Joey whispered.

“Shh!” Safiya hissed.

Joey turned and whispered, “Shh!” to Colleen.

Colleen nodded and gave Roi a quick, “Shh!”

Roi got it. He turned to face the ghost of Robert Jones and whispered, “Shh!”

Now that they had some silence, there was no way Robert would - wait, _what?!_

Roi immediately did a double take. Surely enough, Robert Jones was sitting right next him, bowler hat and all. Roi stuttered and pointed, getting the attention of his friends. They all turned to face the angry spirit.

“ _Boo,_ ” was all Robert said.

_THIS IS NO LONGER FINE!_

Roi screamed at the top of his lungs. Colleen let out a cry of, “Oh, my _shit!_ ” Safiya grabbed hold of a shrieking Joey. Robert laughed menacingly at the scene.

Joey screamed, “ _RUN!_ ”

He took the words right out of Roi’s mouth. Everyone burst out of the cabinets and made a mad dash for the exit. As Roi made sure the others ahead of him, he could still feel the salt shaker in his pocket. He glanced behind him to see that they were a good distance ahead of Robert already. He’d keep the salt safe until they _really_ needed to use it. Until then, they needed to run as fast as they could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because it wouldn't be a Scooby Doo story without the all-important snack break, amiright?  
> And it wouldn't be Escape the Night without the slightest bit of feels thrown into the mix.
> 
> Next Time: I've tried to come up with a witty description for Team Auditorium, but I feel like it would just be a play on words.


	11. Puzzle in the Playhouse

Manny refreshed his email for the umpteenth time. He’s been doing that periodically since Mr. Cash said they might have to cancel classes if the hauntings got worse. Once again, however, nothing new came up. It was like Manny and the rest of the gang - and maybe Calliope and Mortimer - were the only ones taking this seriously. What, did the public school system not allow kids to leave if there were ghosts in the vicinities? Honestly, it was so frustrating.

“Any luck there, big guy?” Matt asked.

Manny rolled his eyes. “Nothing. Again. Like, what part of ghosts haunting a school do people not understand?”

“Probably the part where you said, ‘ghosts haunting a school,’” Teala suggested.

“That’s a good point,” Matt said. “I mean, I’ve always had this theory that ghosts prefer to stay hidden to most of the world unless someone or something appeals to them.”

That made sense. Manny’s seen those ghost hunting shows before - the ones where ghosts will sometimes make an appearance, but then the investigators will dismiss it as something else. Like, sure - that moving table was  _tooooaaatlly_ just the wind, you guys.

“Ghost would make the best Hide and Seek players,” Manny said. “Anytime someone sees them, the person is just like, ‘Whoop, nope, that’s just a shadow.’”

It occurred to Manny that the ghosts might be playing Hide and Seek with them at that moment. Teala must have been thinking the same thing; she darted her eyes around, like she was trying to find places where the ghosts could be hiding. And here they all were, looking for a bunch of creepy-ass ghosts in a haunted-ass freaking school.

All of a sudden, something rattled in a bush nearby. Manny’s brain immediately went to _HOLY SHIT GHOST!_ He and Teala both clung to each other as whatever was in the bushes was getting ready to pop out.

It was a squirrel.

It was a little freaking _squirrel._ He scurried out of the bushes and past the trio to a couple of trees. Manny and Teala let go of each other as good ol' MatPat snickered at the sight.

 _What the fuck am I doing here again?_ Manny asked himself. _Oh, right, looking for clues. Duh._

Manny shook off the shookness. He was just about to get back to business when a twig snapped a few yards away.

“ _Bitch, what the fuck?!_ ” Manny exclaimed, grabbing Teala again and pulling her close.

“Guys, that was the squirrel again!” Matt laughed.

“Huh?” Manny blurted out.

“Look, the little guy’s climbing up that tree over there.”

Manny pointed his flashlight at the tree that Matt was talking about. Surely enough, the little guy in question was scurrying up the tree like the smug little bastard he was.

“Bitch,” Manny muttered.

Teala made some kind of noise, and Manny glanced down to see that he’d buried her face in his chest without realizing it. She might have been saying something like, “ _Hello? Manny? I can’t breathe!_ ”

“Woah!” Manny exclaimed. He let her go as she gasped for air. “Sorry, Teala!”

“It’s cool,” Teala said between breaths.

Manny wished his imagination didn’t run a marathon every other five minutes.

“Are you guys okay?” Matt giggled.

Manny rolled his eyes. “I’m glad you’re finding this amusing, sir,” he said.

“Sorry, sorry,” Matt said, raising his hands. “Seriously, though, you guys good?”

“Yep,” Teala replied, dusting her clothes off.

“Yeah,” Manny added. “I’m sorry again, Teala.”

“It’s cool.”

Matt motioned for them to get back to walking. “Come on, guys. We need to get going.”

Manny calmed down as they got back to it, but then his brain decided to be a bitch.

 _Seriously, bitch?_ Manny thought to himself. _I thought you were supposed to be keeping them safe. How can you do that when you’re scared of a freaking squirrel?_

Manny wanted to help the group. He wanted to be friends with them. But how could he focus on either of those things if every little thing freaked him out? He was a bitch _and_ a coward.

 

“So, Matt,” Teala said, “how do we get inside?”

Matt replied, “There’s a door that leads backstage around the back of the main building. The dressing rooms are back there, along with all the props and costumes we use, so we might be able to find something. There’s a window just above the door. One of us can probably squeeze our way in there to open the door from the inside.”

Teala was lucky she had those two in this group, she figured. MatPat was insanely smart, and he definitely seemed to know what he was doing. As for Manny, he could definitely provide the muscle if they needed any. And Teala could… um…

 _Wait…  what_ can _I do here?_

Compared to MatPat and Manny, who were the brains and the brawn respectively, Teala was just, kind of… _there._ That thought’s been in the back of her mind this entire time. Everyone she was investigating with always seemed to have the answer to everything. Everyone except her. It felt like she was always one step behind everyone else. It made her feel like a dumb puppy who wouldn’t stop following the others.

_Does everyone else think that about me, too?_

Teala and Manny followed Matt to some stairs next to the school that led a couple of meters under the pavement. At the bottom of the stairs, a door leading inside the main building was waiting just to the right. Above the door was a rectangular window. It was as wide as the door, but it’s vertical height wasn’t very great.

“Up there,” Matt said, pointing at the window. “If one of us can squeeze through, they can open the door from the other side and let the rest of us in.”

“That sucker’s pretty narrow,” Manny said. “Who’s gonna do it?”

Teala thought back to when she was a lot younger, and she would win almost every game of Hide and Seek she played with Roi and Jc. This was partly because she could squeeze into just about any nook and cranny. She once hid in a toy chest, and it had taken the boys about twenty minutes or so to find her. It was a long shot, but maybe she could still do that now.

“I can try,” Teala offered.

“You sure?” Manny asked.

 _No, I am absolutely_ not _sure._

“Yeah,” Teala said anyway.

“Awesome,” Matt replied. “Let’s do it.”

Manny stepped in front of the door and knelt a bit to make sure Teala didn't find herself above the window. “Okay, up we go, guys.”

Matt stepped over Manny’s shoulders, and settled himself down. “You’re up Teala,” Matt said.

“Uh… okay,” Teala said nervously.

She had no idea if this was going to work. They’d either be stuck with a locked window, or they’d all topple over. But she was hesitant to raise her concern. Besides, at least she’d have a chance to be at least somewhat useful.

She tried to climb, but needless to say, climbing atop two people is pretty difficult. She eventually settled herself on Matt’s shoulders, and she felt a jolt as their tower began teetering a little bit.

“Careful!” Matt exclaimed.

“Woah, woah!” Teala cried out.

“Stop squirming up there!” Manny yelled.

Teala leaned forward and braced her hands to the edges of the window to keep herself stable. Thankfully, they somehow managed to steady themselves after a moment. Teala took a few deep breaths. They were fine. They weren’t going to fall. Probably.

“You guys okay up there?” Manny asked in a strained tone.

“All good,” Matt replied. He didn’t sound as strained, but he probably wasn’t used to holding up another person.

“Yeah,” Teala added, trying to control the shakiness in her voice.

“Cool,” Manny said. “Now will someone please open the window?”

Teala eased a hand to the handle and twisted. Luckily for them, the handle didn’t have a lock. The window opened a crack, and she pushed it the rest of the way. By the looks of it, it was definitely big enough for her to fit through.

“I got it!” Teala told them.

“Awesome,” Manny said, still sounding strained. “Now go inside, please.” He was probably getting tired of holding up two people at once. Teala didn’t blame him.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “Climb on in and open the door.”

“Got it,” Teala said.

She gripped the bottom of the window with both hands, lifted her leg, and planted her foot on Matt’s shoulder for a moment.

“Ow!” Matt exclaimed.

“Sorry!” Teala apologized.

She pushed herself forward and swung her other leg through the window. She maneuvered herself into the opening until she was inside, dangling from the stool with both hands. She let go, landed on her feet, and quickly straightened herself up.

_Bam! The Super Spy strikes again…_

As she gathered her bearings, she realized how dark it was in there. Her eyes were more adjusted to the outside, partially because of the streetlights and flashlights. But in there? She was likely to be eaten by a grue.

Was there a grue in there at that moment? Was that why she felt an overwhelming presence? Or was it one of the ghosts? Or was it a grue _and_ a ghost? She needed her flashlight. Wait, where was her flashlight? Did she drop it? Yeah, she dropped it. Was it outside? It must have been outside. What was that noise?

_Yeah, okay, nope. Not gonna be in here by myself._

 

Matt climbed off of Manny as Teala was fanaggling herself into the storage room. The weight off of Matt’s shoulders was a relief, even though Teala weighed almost nothing. He noticed her flashlight on the ground and picked it up. It was probably pitch black in there. If a ghost didn’t get her first, a grue certainly would.

“Thanks for being the base,” Matt told him.

“Welcome. Now, about our Super Spy friend in there… will she be okay?”

“It’s just for a few seconds.” Despite his positive words, he knew anything could happen between then and the time they were able to get inside. “Psst, Teala,” Matt whispered. “Can you hear me in there? Are you alright?”

They didn’t get a response for a brief moment. If anything, Matt certainly _hoped_ she was alright.

“Welp, she’s dead,” Manny concluded matter-of-factly.

Matt stared at him in astonishment. “Manny.”

“I’m just kidding!”

Matt was about to think of something to say to chew him out, but he stopped himself. He’s probably done more than enough of that already, especially considering he already said he’d rather have gotten beaten up by Wilmer than have had Manny help him and his friends last week. The same went for Teala, to a different extent. During their fight last week, he’d just snap back at her and everyone else like the entire food fight was _their_ faults instead of sharing the blame with everyone else.

Matt felt awful about that for days, but he didn’t know if they would care if he apologized or not. He figured they would still be mad, and that only made him feel worse.

The knob suddenly jiggled a little bit, and Teala cracked the door open. She stepped aside and motioned for them to come in.

“Welcome, mortals,” Teala said. Her tone reminded Matt of Safiya’s Morticia Addams impression.

Matt handed Teala her flashlight as the boys joined her inside. Once the door was shut, he noticed he was getting a notification on his phone. It was a text from Jc to the group chat.

 

 **Jc:** we just saw a security guard leave. i think we have the campus to ourselves now.

At first, Matt thought to himself, _Cool, looks like we’re alone here after all._ But then he realized, _Hold up… security guard?!_

He texted back as quickly as he could:

 **Matt:** Are you guys alright? Nobody saw you, right?

Rosanna was in that group, and so were Jc and Nikita. The thought of Rosanna getting caught and landing into trouble worried him. He hadn’t known Jc for that long, but Matt was still concerned for him, too. And despite their rocky start, Matt even found himself thinking about Nikita. And what about the cafeteria group? What were _they_ doing?

Thankfully, Jc was quick to respond. **  
******

**Jc:** yeah, everyone’s good here. how about you all?

Matt sighed with relief, then texted back:

 **Matt:** We just got under the stage. **  
** ****

**Safiya:** we’re approaching the cafeteria as we speak.

 

_Okay, everyone’s getting started. More importantly, they’re all safe. Awesome…_

Matt turned the screen off, and shone the phone’s flashlight around. The area backstage was a lot spookier at night. The props cast eerie shadows and seemed to make threatening faces. There were a few racks worth of costume pieces all lined up in rows; the perfect hiding spot for anyone trying to nab him and the others. A few mirrors were scattered around, and Matt thought that if he looked into one if they walked by, he would see a face that wasn’t supposed to be there.

 _Okay, Matt,_ he scolded himself, _you’ve been playing too many horror games._

It was just a storage room. A normal, everyday room where the theatre department kept their props and costumes. As long as the ghosts didn't  know they were there, there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Welp, here we are,” Manny observed. “In a creepy-ass prop room in a haunted-ass school.”

“Don’t be alarmed,” Teala said, “but there may or may not be a grue in here, too.”

“What the heck’s a grue?” Manny asked her.

“A monster that lurks around in the dark,” Matt replied. He’d known of the _Zork_ games for a while. “It’s constantly hungry and it can’t ever be satisfied.”

“Sounds like my dog, Zaya,” Manny said. “Only bigger and possibly less cuddly… Yeah, now that I think about it, it’s probably nothing like a cute little puppy”

“Oh, yeah,” Teala confirmed. “It’s _much_ less cute and cuddly than a puppy. I wouldn’t recommend keeping one as a pet. It might eat everyone in the house. Like, _literally_ everyone and everything in the house.”

 _Huh,_ Matt thought. _These two sure do talk a lot… Cool!_

Matt appreciated how easy it was for them to carry on a conversation. It was rare that he met people who talked a mile a minute as much as he did.

_Seriously, it wasn’t cool to be so mad at them last week…_

“Okay, guys,” Matt said, trying to stay focused. “Let’s start poking around. If you guys find anything that looks like something the Specter wore, holler.” He was about to start off before he remembered something else. “Oh! And if you see a horse mask wearing a witch's hat, let me know.”

“A what?” Manny asked.

Matt shrugged. “It’s an inside joke we all have in the drama classes that started when we were freshmen last year. Ro found a horse head, Saf put witch hat on it just for a laugh, and I put it somewhere for people to find. It kept getting moved around since then. It’s kinda like a ‘Where’s Waldo?’ thing.”

“Okay, then,” Teala giggled. “We’ll keep an eye out for that, too.”

“Yeah,” Manny agreed, “especially if a ghost decides to wear it.”

“Cool,” Matt said, pleasantly surprised that they were willing to go along with the joke. “Most people just stare at me and say it’s weird or something.”

Teala shrugged. “Well, those people are boring.”

“Who are they to deny that a horse mask can be a witch?” Manny joked.

Matt let himself laugh a little. It was refreshing to have people who got his dumb jokes other than Rosanna and Safiya. These two were cool. In fact, all of the others were cool, too. It made him feel even worse about mouthing off at them the week before.

“Matt, you okay?” Teala asked.

Matt perked up. He hadn’t realized his dejection had been plastered on his face. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Is it about what happened outside?” Manny asked. For some reason, he sounded a little guilty.

“No, I-” Matt sighed. “Guys, I’m sorry about last week. I wasn’t acting like myself; I was just so mad about being stuck there, and…” _Is this even gonna work?_ “I didn’t mean what I said.”

“What you said about what?” Manny inquired.

“About everyone acting like idiots,” Matt clarified. “About not wanting Manny’s help, and putting you guys down. I didn’t mean any of it. I’m so sorry, guys. I feel awful that I said those things to you all.”

Teala and Manny exchanged glances with each other. At first, Matt was worried they didn’t believe him, but what happened next made him feel better.

 

“Honestly,” Manny said, “no hard feelings from me. I mean, I was acting like a bitch, too. I kept snapping at everyone, including you two. I shouldn’t have tried to pull any of that, and I shouldn’t have tried to push Wilmer’s destruction onto you.” He stopped himself. “Shit. I did it again, didn’t I?”

“It’s okay, Manny,” Matt assured him. “I meant it when I said I appreciated your help. The girls appreciated it, too.”

Teala added a little encouragement. “If it weren’t for you, all three of them probably would have ended up in the ER.”

That _definitely_ wouldn’t have been good. At first, Manny just did that to save Matt because he was in immediate danger. But now he was just starting to warm up to Rosanna and Safiya, too. In fact, now that he thought about it, it wasn't just them he was warming up to. He was starting to like pretty much _all_ of them . And he liked them  _far_ too much to let any of them get beaten up by an absolute box of expired raisin bran like Wilmer.

“In that case, new rule,” Manny declared. “If anyone hurts either of you two, or any of our other friends, they’re gonna end up getting hit in the face with a ham sandwich. No exceptions.”

“Why a ham sandwich?” Teala asked.

“It’s the sandwich I threw at Wilmer when he was messing with Matt, Ro and Safiya. They’re surprisingly helpful in a fight, food related or otherwise.”

Matt smiled. “Well, either way, thank you. Again.”

“You’re welcome,” Manny replied.

 _Looks like the nerd and I are cool,_ Manny thought. _Thank God._

Not only did he finally put all that behind him and make a couple of possible new friends, but holding grudges is really bad for your skin. Or something. Probably… Okay, he was mostly just glad about the former. But still.

 

As glad as Teala was that they were finally getting along, she couldn’t really let herself feel all that happy.

“Uh, guys?” she said. “I don’t want to ruin the mood but, well…”

“What’s wrong?” Matt asked her.

Manny looked over at her. “If you feel bad about the fight in the cafeteria, it’s okay. It’s like Matt said, everyone was stressed out and in a bad mood.”

Teala appreciated that. In a way, that was bothering her, too. But it wasn't quite wasn’t what she wanted to talk about.

“Well, there’s that, too,” Teala remarked, “but, I mean… Matt, you’re one of the smartest people helping us, and Manny’s definitely the strongest. But I feel like everyone thinks I’m just… tagging along.”

“That’s not true,” Manny tried to reassure her. “We don’t think that.”

Teala shrugged. She didn't quite believe that. “The only clue I found technically wasn’t even a clue. It was just the grave of someone who didn’t come back. I feel like I’ve just been asking useless questions that everyone else already knew the answer to.”

“Well,” Matt said, “I wouldn’t call any question ’useless.’”

“What do you mean?” Teala asked.

“If people just stopped being curious about things, we wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. We wouldn’t have discovered or learned anything, and we wouldn’t be able to improve on anything. The ten of us probably wouldn’t even be here right now. A wise man once said, ‘There’s no such thing as a stupid question.’”

Manny added, “Unless it’s, like, ‘What’s Obama’s last name?’ Or, ‘Will it hurt if I look at a picture of the sun?’”

Teala had to let out a little chuckle at that. She couldn’t help herself.

“The point is,” Matt continued, “I’ve read a lot of mystery novels in my day. If the great Sherlock Holmes has taught me anything, it’s that a good detective never stops asking questions.”

Teala hadn’t thought of it like that. It made her feel a little reassured.

“In all seriousness,” Manny said, “I’m happy we’re all the ones solving this. I mean - Matt, you’re smart as shit. And Teala, you’re doing more for all of us than you think you are. Everyone’s been doing their own thing to help this entire time, and we’re all getting to the end of this together.”

Teala smiled. “Yeah… I guess you’re right.”

Teala felt all the warmth in the world from these two. It reminded her of the warmth she felt with Jc, Roi and Colleen. It was the kind of feeling you felt when someone you love directly tells you how much they care about you for the first time. In her opinion, that was the best feeling in the world.

The boys were right. Everyone _has_ been working together throughout all of this. They’d found clues together, they’d searched high and low for answers together, and they were sure as hell going to solve this together. They all had their own way of doing things, but they meshed together like a perfect little recipe for a teamwork cake.

Matt leaned back against the wall. “So, should we get back to it, guys?” He seemed much more relaxed than he had ten minutes ago.

Teala had her flashlight pointed near Matt so it wouldn’t get in his eyes. Because the light was pointing more to the wall, though, she noticed a spider crawling close to his head. It was a tiny spider, but a spider nonetheless.

Now, spiders weren’t Teala’s worst fear, but they were still pretty creepy. They didn’t make ideal roommates, considering they don’t pay rent, and just waltz in wherever they want without any concern for privacy. She knew that she certainly wouldn’t want one near her head either. The polite thing to do, she thought, would be to let Matt know about the little guy.

“Hey, Matt?” she said.

“Yes?”

“There’s a spider next to your head.”

Matt’s eyes widened. “ _What?_ ”

Matt instantly turned his head to where Teala’s light was resting on the wall. The second he saw the little leg demon, he unleashed a piercing, girlish shriek that Teala never would have expected to hear from him. He stumbled back to get away from the spider, only to trip and fall through a rack of hanging costumes. Teala and Manny both burst out laughing. Manny doubled over, cackling like a witch. Teala was on her hands and knees, trying to remember how to breathe. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed so hard.

 

It took a minute for Manny to compose himself. He couldn’t believe that Matthew Patrick, the sensible Einstein of the three of them, was afraid of a little spider! Out of all the spooky things they’d already seen, _that_ got him?! Granted, Manny hated spiders, too, but not on _that_ scale!

Manny walked over to Matt. He was blanketed by a black tweed jacket, and a top hat covered his face.

“Are you alright?” Manny asked, still trying to stop himself from laughing.

Matt responded with a noise that sounded like a donkey’s mating call. After a moment, he finally remembered how to speak English.

“Can we look for clues now?” Matt asked meekly, tossing the hat aside.

“Yeah,” Manny replied.

_Bless his little heart!_

Teala pushed herself up and approached the boys. “Here,” she said, offering Matt a hand.

Manny followed her example and reached out to help, too. Matt grabbed both of them and pulled himself up.

Matt cleared his throat. “Please don’t tell Saf and Ro about that,” he laughed nervously. “I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“That will not leave this room,” Manny assured him, and Teala zipped her lips.

“Cool.” Matt sighed.

On that note, they set off to do what they went there to do. The trio searched backstage, carefully examining anywhere that could be hiding some kind of clue. They soon came to one of the dressing rooms.

“How about we check in here?” Teala suggested, pointing her flashlight at the door. “I’ve got a feeling we might find something.”

Manny adjusted his flashlight in his hands. “Let’s take a look.”

They pushed the door open and entered the dressing room. Teala was the first to enter, and the boys followed. They didn’t get very far because right as they turned the the left the tiniest little bit - _HOLY MOTHERFUCK IT’S THE SPECTER!_

“ _Oh, my God!_ ” Manny screamed.

The Specter was _right_ there! He was right around the corner just a few inches in front of the group.

Manny stumbled back and covered his mouth. Matt yelped and threw his arms around haphazardly. Teala let out a shriek and immediately punched the Specter at full force. Her fist slammed against the side of the Specter’s face, and he fell onto the ground.

Despite himself, Manny found himself thinking,  _Holy shit, girl! Where did_ that _come from?!_

Matt started punching the air. “ _Shhhhhhhh-!_ ” he started. At first, Manny thought he was going to say, “ _Shit._ ” What he said instead was, “THE INCREMENT IN THE INTERNAL ENERGY IN A SYSTEM IS EQUAL TO THE INCREMENT OF HEAT SUPPLIED IN THE SYSTEM!!” He stamped his foot. “Dammit! _Dammit!_ ”

_What the fuck did he just say?_

“Uhh…” Manny muttered. “Bitch, what language was that?”

Matt’s voice sounded strained. “I think it was the first law of thermodynamics…”

“Still don’t know what language that is, but okay.”

Okay, so Matt blurts out science stuff when he's scared enough. Apparently. Manny hadn’t realized how extra Matt was until a few minutes ago. Oh, well. He was a theatre kid, after all.

“Oh, shit!” Teala exclaimed. “Did I kill him?!”

 _Oh, that’s right,_ Manny remembered. _Teala just did that._

The Specter was lying face up on the floor. He seemed stiff. A little _too_ stiff.

“Are you… uh, are you dead?” Manny asked the Specter.

No response.

“Hey!” Manny tried again. “If you’re dead, don’t wake up!”

Nothing.

The Specter was still absolutely motionless. Manny was perplexed by this. Sure, Teala had proven herself to be a pretty slippery little nugget, but she was a freaking twig. There was no way she would have been able to knock someone unconscious with her bare hands. But there was the Specter, lying motionless on the floor. It didn’t even look like he was breathing.

Or ever breathing… at all?

_Hmm, weird._

 

 _What the heck?_ Matt wondered to himself. _Why isn’t he getting up, or screaming at us or something?_

Something about this didn’t seem right. Matt approached the body(?) and kicked it as lightly as he could. It felt hard, and it rocked back and forth a little.

“Hold on…” Matt knelt down and reached for the Specter’s face. His hunch was correct. “It’s a dummy. And it’s wearing a costume.”

“Dummy?” Teala asked.

“Costume?” Manny asked.

“Yeah, check this out.” Matt untied a little black ribbon behind the head, and lifted up a white mask. “This looks like one of the masks we use in productions sometimes.”

“And that cloak,” Teala said thoughtfully. “It looks like something the Grim Reaper would wear.”

“Or a ghost,” Manny remarked.

“Or someone _pretending_ to be a ghost,” Matt concluded, raising his eyebrows in sudden realization.

“So this is it!” Teala exclaimed. “We know for sure he’s a fake!”

Matt realized something else. “You were right Teala; there _was_ something here!”

Teala grinned from ear to ear. “Really?!”

“Hell yeah!” Manny exclaimed. “This is a huge find for us!” He held out his hand for a high-five.

“Thanks!” Teala exclaimed as they all high-fived each other.

_This is so freaking awesome!_

Matt fished out his phone to take a picture of the costume. A sudden burst of energy rushed through Matt as he snapped the picture. He felt like a real detective, like Sherlock Holmes, his childhood hero. He was solving a real, bonafide mystery, and this was a major step forward!

As they exited the dressing room, Manny held out his hand to stop them from walking.

“Hold on a sec,” Manny said, pointing his flashlight at a group of rods on the wall across the room. “What the heck are those?”

It was a series of five long, sturdy wooden rods, almost all of them containing a reeled up metal cord and a harness.

Matt explained, “Those are just the spare cords and harnesses we keep handy in case we need them. We use the harnesses for our performances sometimes, and these cords are used to help hold them up. We keep them in case one of them snaps, but that’s never happened.”

“Well, that’s handy,” Manny said.

“It is,” Matt agreed, but he noticed something strange. “But look; one of the rods is bare. There’s supposed to be a cord and a harness on there.”

Matt pointed his light at the bare rod in question. There were only four occupied rods that he could see, but there was _definitely_ supposed to be some equipment on the fifth rod. And there  _wasn't_.

“Does that mean the Specter took them?” Manny asked. “To make it seem like he could fly?”

“Maybe,” Matt decided. “It would definitely make sense.”

Matt took a picture of the lonely rod. Poor thing, missing it’s friends. It was probably so cold without them.

“Is that everything?” Teala asked. “Is there anything else we should be looking for?”

Matt thought about that. They’d found two pretty interesting clues, and that would probably be enough to call it a night. Even so, something still didn’t feel quite right.

“I don’t know,” Matt said thoughtfully. “I feel like we’re still missing something.”

“Like what?” Teala asked.

“Like…” Matt shone his light around, trying to figure out what was bugging him.

Finally, he landed on it. His flashlight revealed a big box that they used to store spare sandbags. Frankly, Matt never liked the idea of keeping them down there, mostly because they were heavy as all get out, and a pain to carry up the stairs if anyone needed them. But they were there. And the box had seemed to move a few feet since the last time Matt saw it.

 _And boxes don’t just move on their own,_ Matt deduced.

“Like that.”

 

“The box?” Teala asked.

“We use it to store some of the sandbags,” Matt explained. “It looks a little different than it was when I last saw it. Can we just check to be safe?”

“Why not?” Manny decided.

Teala shrugged and said, “Yeah, okay.”

Teala and Manny followed Matt to the box. Just a moment ago, they were on a roll with all these clues. She wondered what else they were about to find.

Matt knelt down and opened one of the flaps, and Teala grabbed the other. Part of her worried that one of their deceased ghost friends was waiting for them, but her concerns were quickly dashed. Instead, they were met with at least half-a-dozen burlap sacks. Teala knocked on one of them, and it was a lot firmer than she had expected.

“Huh,” was all Matt said.

“What’s up?” Teala asked.

“I think some of them are missing.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I count them.” Matt’s tone was so matter-of-fact that Teala could get the sense that he absolutely meant it.

“ _Neeerrrrrrrd,_ ” Manny teased.

Teala had to agree. Not in an insulting way, of course, but Matt was certainly a massive dork. Luckily for him, Teala's favorite people were dorks.

Matt ignored Manny and said, “Let me just make sure I know how many are missing. Then we can meet back up with the others.”

So Matt counted the sandbags. And recounted them. And re-recounted them just to be safe.

Teala sighed a long, deliberate sigh. When she first climbed inside through the window, she was terrified. She hadn’t expected to be bored in there, but bored she was. She shifted from foot to foot and scanned the prop room for some kind of visual distraction. Of course, there were _several._

They still seemed to be the only ones backstage. It was nothing but them and a bunch of costumes. She could see a couple of renaissance outfits, and a pair of ruby red slippers. A witch’s hat rested on top of a horse mask, and Teala assumed that might have been the inside joke Matt had mentioned. From behind one of the racks, she could also see some torn brown pants, and a long black skirt.

Very familiar torn brown pants, and an equally familiar long black skirt. And they were both moving down the aisle.

_Oh, fuck, they’re moving!_

“Uh, guys?” Teala squeaked.

“Just a sec, Teala,” Matt said. “I need to finish counting.”

The pants and skirt were getting closer to the edge of the aisle. Teala suddenly felt a rush of cold air, and her heart started to beat faster.

“Guys?!” she repeated, louder this time.

“Tea,” Manny said, “let the nerd do his thing.”

The pants and skirt exited the aisle, revealing Simon Ford and Catherine McLean.

“ _Guys!_ ” Teala cried one last time.

Matt and Manny both whirled around and screamed, “ _What?!_ ”

“ _GHOSTS!_ ”

And that was when Matt and Manny finally noticed what Teala was trying to warn them about. Simon and Catherine both lunged at the trio. In response, they all screamed and sprinted off in the opposite direction, trying not to trip over rogue props.

As they ran, Manny shouted, “Why didn't someone  _ _say_ _something?!”

Teala's next scream was a mix of terror and exasperation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In conclusion, Manny remains a big ol' teddy bear, Teala is capable of more than what we saw, and even MatPat makes mistakes sometimes which is perfectly fine. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
> 
> Anywho, now that we know for a fact that the Specter is a mere costumed hooligan, anyone have any theories?
> 
> Next time: Well, now that all that's finally out of the way, I believe now might be a good time to RUUUUUUNNN!!


	12. The Mandatory Chase Scene

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To add a little mood to this chapter, I recommend listening to the song "Mata Hari" by the Atomic Fireballs. Enjoy!

Teala ran through the dark with Manny and Matt, with Simon and Catherine in hot pursuit. Her heart was going at full speed, and she was almost worried it was going to give out.  
  
“This way!” Matt cried out.

Matt waved both of them ahead, and the three of them sped up the stairs and onto the stage. As they ran across the stage, down some stairs and into an aisle, a thought came to Teala.

“Wait, why are there two of them?!” she found herself asking no one in particular.

“Hey,” Manny replied breathlessly, “as long as it’s not all three of them, I don’t care!”

“No! I mean why are there specifically two of them chasing after us?”

She was no MatPat, but the math wasn’t too hard. There were three groups searching the premises, and at least one ghost to go after each of said groups. Why were Simon and Catherine both going after them, instead of one of them going after someone else?

“She’s got a point,” Matt observed. It seemed they were on the same page. “If there are three groups of all of us, the ghosts would each have a group to follow! So why are they-”

Just as they were about to reach the wooden double doors that lead to the rest of the building, Matt was cut off by a sudden, “ _Hey!_ ”

To Teala’s horror, the Specter leaped out from behind one of the chairs, and planted himself directly in front of the exit. The trio skidded to a stop and screamed.

 

The group who had investigated the gym sped through the halls. Nikita looked back to make sure Rosanna and Jc were still with her. They were, but Robert was gone.

Hold up, Robert was gone?!

_Wait! Where’d he go?!_

“Guys!” Nikita exclaimed. “Robert’s gone!”

The three of them skidded to a halt in the middle of the main corridor.

“What?” Jc asked, frantically looking around. “Where is he?!”

Before anyone could figure that out, Nikita heard screaming from behind a pair of double doors just a few yards away. Nikita didn’t hesitate, or even wonder who the screams belonged to. But she did know at least one of them. She dashed over and shoved one of the doors open with all her might, hitting something on the other side.

“ _What’s going on?!_ ” Nikita yelled.

She found that it was the door to the auditorium. Standing inside, eyes all a mile wide, were Manny, Matt and Teala.

“Guys?!” Nikita shrieked. Then she remembered the impact from whatever the door hit, and she realized it felt alarmingly like it could have been a person. “Oh, fuck! Did I just hit someone?!”

Whoever it was, Nikita could hear them sliding to the floor.

“Yes!” Matt replied. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome..?” Nikita muttered as the trio sprinted out of the room.

Nikita wasn’t too sure if smashing someone with a door would be thankable, but she figured she’d let it slide. When everyone was out, Manny and Nikita forced the door shut behind them. Rosanna threw herself at Matt, nearly tackling him to the ground in a hug. Teala grabbed Jc’s hands and pulled him away from the doors. Manny scooped up Nikita by her waist and straight up carried her a few feet into the hallway.

“What happened in there?!” Nikita demanded as Manny was squeezing the air out of her.

As if on cue, two reminders to get the fuck outta there phased through the shut doors.

“ _You!_ ” Simon growled.

“ _Where is it?!_ ” Catherine demanded.

Nikita wanted to scream at the ghosts that they still didn’t know what they were talking about, but remembered what Safiya said. These two didn’t care if Nikita and her friends had their shit or not. They were _pissed._

“Run faster!” Nikita shrieked at her friends.

Manny let Nikita down, keeping a tight grip on her hand, and the six of them took off once more.

 

When Joey and the others burst into the main building, they were surprised to find that the door they’d entered was unlocked. In the back of his panicking mind, Joey thought it was a bit weird. He realized they had some distance between themselves and Robert, so the four of them stopped around a bend to take a quick breather. Joey leaned back against the lockers, trying to force air into his lungs.

“Oh, shit!” Colleen exclaimed breathlessly.

“Who’s still with us?” Joey asked the others.

After a quick headcount, he saw that all three of his friends were still safe. Thankfully. On the downside, that meant they still had six others somewhere in the building. They could be in danger, too.

“Where are the others?” Safiya asked, darting her head in different directions.

“I don’t know,” Joey said, trying to regain control of himself. “They’ve gotta be in here somewh-”

All of a sudden, someone’s shriek broke out through the building.

Joey’s head shot up. “Was that Teala?”

“Yeah,” Colleen replied.

Roi’s eyes widened. “Do you think one of the ghosts found the others?!”

As if to answer Roi’s question, Joey saw the rest of their team rounding a corner several meters ahead. Fortunately, none of them appeared to be hurt. Unfortunately, the ghosts of Simon and Catherine were behind them.

“So that’s a yes, then!” Colleen squawked.

“ _Time to skedaddle!_ ” Joey exclaimed.

With that, the ten of them split up again, fleeing in varying directions.

 

Colleen ended up running through the halls with Roi. For the moment, there didn’t seem to be any ghosts after them, but she didn’t let herself slow down. Someone could catch up with them at any second!

They didn’t get too far before Roi skidded to a halt and spun around. “Oh, my God!” he screamed, and ran back to the cafeteria.

“Roi!” Colleen screamed. “Where are you going?!”

“WE FORGOT THE PUDDING!”

“HOLY SHIT!” Colleen took off after him.

_We forgot about the pudding! Why do we keep forgetting the freakin’ pudding?!_

As the two of them got closer to the exit, Colleen realized they were being followed. Not by one of the ghosts, but by Joey.

“What the hell are you two doing?!” Joey asked as he caught up to Colleen.

“We forgot the pudding!” Colleen replied frantically.

Joey’s eyes widened. “You two are risking your lives for _pudding?!_ ”

Colleen groaned. “Look, I know it’s dumb! But we told the others we’d get that pudding!”

Joey made a face like he was thinking about something. At first she thought he was going to grab her arm or something to stop her from running, but he didn’t.

“Alright, fine!” he decided. “At least let me come with you guys! You might get hurt or something!”

Colleen beamed at him confidently. “Cool!” She returned her attention to Roi, who was now a few yards ahead. “Hey, Roi! Joey’s gonna help!”

“Sweet!” Roi replied. “The more hands, the better!”

They burst out the door they’d come in, and sprinted back to the cafeteria as fast as their legs could carry them. It wasn’t too far of a run, so one of the ghosts could still come after them. As horrifying as those ghosts were, though, they promised their friends they were going to get that pudding! And nothing was going to stand in their way!

As they approached the cafeteria, Colleen remembered how they’d picked the lock to get inside. She didn’t quite know how locks worked, but she _did_ know that it sometimes took a while for the inside of the lock to place itself back together. She hoped that would be the case this time.

 _Please be unlocked!_ Colleen silently prayed. _Please be unlocked, please be unlocked, PLEASE be unlocked!_

Colleen was the first to reach the doors. She grabbed the handle and threw it open. Joey clapped his hands together and let out a “ _Whoo!_ ” and Roi jumped up and punched the air as he followed them inside.

“ _Yes!_ ” Roi cried victoriously.

“Hurry, guys!” Joey yelled. “Let’s grab some pudding and get our friends outta here!”

“Right!” Colleen and Roi agreed.

They rushed back to the kitchen. Once they were inside, Roi opened the fridge, and Colleen and Joey grabbed six empty flour bags from the trash can. They’d each have two bags to fill, which should give them a plentiful bound. Had Colleen been planning ahead, she would have brought a backpack, but those would do just fine.

 

They’d each filled a bag by the time Roi realized they hadn’t been followed.

“I think we gave those ghosts the slip, guys!” Roi observed as he shoved a few more cups into his second bag.

“Yeah!” Joey agreed as he went to grab some more pudding. “We’re a bunch a’ ninjas!”

Roi was almost positive at least one of the ghosts would have followed them back to the kitchen. They must have managed to slip past them. They really _were_ ninjas!

 _“Ninja detectives!”_ The name sounded awesome in Roi’s head. _I like the sound of that!_

Roi ran back to the fridge for another round of cups. When he got there, a pair of hands offered him some.

He took the cups and said, “Thanks!” to the hands that he thought belonged to one of his friends.

As he turned around to rush back to the bags, he heard a voice that definitely wasn’t Colleen’s or Joey’s say, “ _You’re welcome._ ”

Roi skidded to a halt. His friends were both still by the rest of the bags. Judging by the look on their faces, they were terrified of whoever (or _whatever_ ) it was that said “you’re welcome.”

Roi’s heart nearly stopped. _If they’re both over there,_ he realized, _then who’s…_

He turned around, and there was Catherine.

“ _Going somewhere?_ ” Catherine mocked.

Almost instinctively, Roi answered, “Yep, we’re going away from here!  _COMEONGUYSLET’SGO!!_ ”

“Girl, you don’t gotta tell _me_ twice!” Colleen shrieked.

“Aye aye, captain!” Joey exclaimed.

Roi, Colleen and Joey grabbed their now full paper bags and took off, and Catherine gave chase. Not really thinking, Roi scooped up one of his cups and threw it at Catherine. The cup phased through her forehead and plopped onto the ground behind her. She stopped with a dumbfounded look on her face, like she wasn’t used to getting pudding thrown at her.

Roi slowed down a bit and yelled, “Uh, are you okay?!”

Catherine blinked and replied, “ _Yes,_ ” in a somewhat spaced out tone. Within seconds, she seemed to return to her senses and came after them again.

 _Do physical objects stun ghosts if they phase through them?_ Roi wondered frantically. _Well, it’s probably a good thing she wasn’t in the cafeteria last Friday._

“Pudding!” he screamed as he threw a couple more cups. “Pudding! Throwing pudding!”

Roi was aware he still had the salt, but what if he hurt Catherine with it? He still didn’t want to do that to her or the other ghosts.

As Catherine paused a couple more times, she was far enough away for Roi to stop. He didn’t have to sacrifice too much pudding, and Catherine seemed to be alright. The friends burst back into the main building, and the chase continued.

 _At least Joey and Colleen are okay!_ Roi reminded himself, trying to think positive. _And we’ve still got some pudding to spare!_

 

Getting killed by a bunch of ghosts was on the absolute _bottom_ of Jc’s list of things he wanted to do tonight! He rocketed through the halls with Matt, Manny, Teala and Nikita in tow. As they came to the third floor corridor, it occurred to him that they could probably hide in one of the classrooms.

“In here, guys!” Jc hollered as he opened the door. “Maybe we can hide in-”

The words were barely out of his mouth when he realized Simon was behind the door.

Simon glared at Jc and started to bellow, “ _Give it-_ ”

“Nope!” Jc interrupted as he slammed the door.

Teala ran to another door and pulled it open. “What about the-” She stopped herself as soon as she saw Simon in the next door. She let out a yelp and stumbled back as Nikita ran to shut the door for her.

“He’s all over the place!” Nikita shrieked.

As the three of them started to run again, it didn’t take them long to notice they were short a couple of heads.

“Wait!” Jc exclaimed as he slowed to a jog. “Where are Matt and Manny?”

The three of them stopped to look around, but it was only a few seconds before they heard one of their missing friends’ voices again.

“Beep beep, bitches!” Manny exclaimed.

Before Jc could process whatever that was supposed to mean, an office chair swept Teala and Nikita off the ground.

Jc’s eyes widened with surprise. “What the f-”

“Watch out, Jc!” Matt yelled.

“ _What?!_ ” Jc was just about to look in the direction of Matt's voice, but was abruptly interrupted when he was swept into an office chair of his own.

When he gathered his bearings, he saw that Matt was the one pushing him. In addition, Manny was pushing the girls’ chair. They seemed to have a method of running with the chairs to build up momentum, then they would plant a foot on the base of the chair, push with their free foot, then resume running if it slowed down again. All the while, they were leaving Simon in the dust.

Well, if it worked, it worked!

“Keep it up, guys!” Jc encouraged them. “I think we’re losing him!”

 

Matt wasn’t too sure about his idea at first, and Manny needed a little additional convincing. Luckily for them, their crazy idea seemed to be working! As an added bonus, it was easier to push the chair than Matt thought it would be. Under normal circumstances, Matt probably wouldn’t be able to push someone in a chair for this long. It might have been the fact that they were currently running for their lives, and there was a heck ton of adrenaline pumping through his veins, but that was just a guess.

 _Thank God for the sympathetic nervous system!_ Matt thought.

They were almost to the end of the hall, when Matt noticed Manny leaping back onto the base of his chair to look behind him and blow a raspberry in Simon’s direction. Nikita seemed to follow his example, taunting their ghostly pursuer with insults.

“You move slower than my grandma _drives,_ bitch!” Nikita yelled.

Matt couldn’t help but laugh at the scene, when he suddenly noticed they were quickly approaching the end of the hallway, where one of the stairwells rested.

“Stairs!” Matt warned the others.

Everyone snapped to attention. They probably could have used their feet to stop the rolling chairs, but with all the excitement, it didn’t occur to them.

Jc gripped his armrests and screamed, “Abandon chairs!”

Jc and the girls leapt off the chairs, and Matt and Manny let go of them and stumbled to the floor in the nick of time. The five of them watched as their two chairs tumbled down the stairs and onto the space landing.

Matt chuckled nervously and said, “Good thing we weren’t still on those things, huh?”

They didn’t have much time to celebrate before they heard Simon bellowing again.

“Shit!” Manny exclaimed.

The group scrambled to get up, then started thundering down the stairs to the second floor.

Matt resorted to a method he used when things got too scary: he would start reciting some sort of mathematical equations, scientific fact, or just gibberish in order to keep himself from swearing. It was a weird habit, but he adapted it when he was younger, and he’d been using it ever since.

As he ran down the stairs with his friends, Matt started reciting the Pythagorean theorem. “IN A RIGHT TRIANGLE, THE SQUARE OF THE HYPOTENUSE IS EQUAL TO THE SUM OF THE SQUARES OF THE OTHER TWO SIDES!!”

“Matt!” Nikita exclaimed “Now is not the time!”

 

Meanwhile, on the second floor, Safiya and Rosanna were trying to lose Robert. Safiya didn’t think she could ever be more afraid of ghosts than she had been before this. Now that she was actually being chased by some for a second time, that fear had just reached its peak.

They soon rounded a corner, and they realized they’d put a good amount of distance between themselves and Robert. They skidded to a halt, but they couldn't stay there for long.

 _He must be the slowest out of all of them,_ Safiya observed.

“What now?!” Rosanna fretted.

Safiya tried to catch her breath. As scared as she was, she couldn’t afford to panic right now, and she _certainly_ didn't want Rosanna getting hurt. They needed a plan. She scanned the hall, trying to think of something that could help them. She quickly realized that they were standing right next to the bathrooms.

An idea popped into Safiya’s head. It was a bit of a long shot, but it just might work.

“Come on!” Safiya urged, grabbing Rosanna’s hand. “I have a plan.”

They ducked into the women’s bathroom, and Safiya pulled the door shut behind them. She was almost certain that Robert had seen them go inside, but she was counting on that.

“Safiya?” Rosanna whimpered. The poor girl sounded like she was trying not to panic.

Safiya turned around and squeezed her friend’s hand. “It’ll be okay, Ro,” she said, partially to reassure Rosanna, and partially to reassure herself. “Just follow my lead, okay?”

Rosanna nodded. They both listened for a moment as Robert’s shrieks grew louder and louder. It wasn’t long before it sounded like he was right outside the door. Safiya took a deep breath, opened the door, stared into Robert’s terrifyingly furious face…

And she scowled.

“Um, excuse me, sir,” Safiya scolded, trying to sound as irritated as she could. “Do you _mind?_ ”

Robert blinked. His glare turned into a confused stare. “ _What?_ ”

“This is the _girls’_ room,” Safiya asserted.

Rosanna seemed to get the hint. She poked her head out and glowered at Robert. “Seriously, did you not see the sign?” She pointed at the sign on the door, as if to emphasize their point.

Robert turned his attention to the sign in question. If ghosts could blush, he seemed to be doing so. He took off his hat in embarrassment.

“ _My apologies,_ ” Robert relented. “ _I’ll just… I'll be on my way, then._ ”

The girls both glared at Robert as he sheepishly slunk down the hall.

 _Well, he may be a vengeful spirit,_ Safiya thought, _but at least he’s polite._

Safiya pulled the door closed, grabbed Rosanna and lead her away from the door. Once they were far enough inside, she breathed a sigh of relief.

“ _Oh, my God!_ ” Safiya exclaimed in a singsong voice. “That was _way_ too close!”

“I know!” Rosana agreed.

She never thought her acting skills would save her and her friend from a ghost, but she’d take it! She might need to keep that in mind if it ever happened again.

 

Rosanna glanced around the bathroom, and it seemed to be safe. At least, for the time being. She put a hand over her chest, trying to calm herself down. Despite knowing they were safe, she was still a little shaken up, and Safiya seemed to be, too.

_Poor girl, I forgot how freaked out she is by this stuff…_

Before Rosanna could ask Safiya if she was alright, she thought she heard Joey say, “Guys?” from one of the stalls. One of the doors opened, and he, Roi and Colleen stepped out. They were each holding two paper bags full of something that sounded like plastic.

 _What are they holding in there?_ Rosanna wondered.

Joey knit his eyebrows in confusion. “What are you doing in the boy’s room?”

“Boy’s room?” Safiya repeated. “This is the _girl’s_ room.”

“What?” Joey glanced around. He seemed to have just noticed the suspicious lack urinals. “ _Oooohhh…_ y’know with the night we’ve been having, none of us even noticed.”

“So, why are _you_ here, Colleen?” Rosanna asked. “Didn’t you think this was the boy’s room, too?”

“Yeah,” Colleen replied matter-of-factly, “but I didn’t want to be alone,”

Rosanna couldn’t really blame them for any of that. She had spent the better part of the past fifteen minutes blindly running from a bunch of ghosts. She probably would have ran inside of a locker if she wasn’t careful. With all the scrambling around, she was almost surprised she wasn’t exhausted by then.

“Anyway,” Joey said, “what are you guys doing here?”

“Hiding from Simon,” Rosanna replied.

“What are _you_ guys doing in here?” Safiya asked.

“Hiding from Catherine,” Roi replied.

As he said that, a woman’s chilling voice rang out. “ _Good thing this is the girl’s room, then!_ ”

Rosanna nearly froze when she saw that Catherine had been hiding in the very backs stall.

Rosanna let out a scream, and so did everyone else.

“Oh, _come on!_ ” Joey snapped.

The five of them burst out of the bathroom, only to find that the other half of their friends were running from Simon. They rejoined the rest of their group, which was good! But now they had _two_ ghosts coming after them!

“Well,” Jc hollered, “on the bright side this can’t get any worse!”

All of a sudden, they all heard Robert yell, “ _Wait a minute!_ ” And it wasn’t long before Rosanna saw him join his cousin and girlfriend in the chase.

Why did that always happen when people say, “It can’t get any worse?” They _always_ get worse whenever people say that!

The gang thundered down the halls, and Rosanna was reminded of their first chase. The difference between that chase and the one they were in the middle of at the moment was that this one was at night. And that only made it scarier!

Several shrill cries of “ _Give it back!_ ” kept Rosanna and her friends moving as they ran down the stairs to the first floor.

 

What happened next was the physical manifestation of a migraine as far as Manny was concerned. Once they entered the first floor corridor, they scattered about and ran into different rooms in an attempt to get away from the ghosts. However, the ghosts always seemed to either follow the gang inside, or they were already there. And every time that happened, everyone would skedaddle out of that room and into another one, and so on and so forth.

It quickly became a really confusing pattern. Everyone kept running in and out, to and fro, left and right, back and forth, generally just all over the damn hallway without any idea of where they were going next. Eventually, they all seemed to be chasing _each other!_

Just as Manny was starting to get dizzy, he and all nine of the others collided in the hallway. Everyone collapsed onto the ground, groaning in pain.

“Shit…” Manny muttered. He banged his right hand on the floor when he fell, and it hurt like a bitch.

Colleen sat up, rubbing the back of her head. “I swear, one of us is gonna get a concussion from that one of these days!”

Matt rapidly shook his head. “What is this? French Farce?!”

Joey glanced at Matt. “We can worry about European flatulence another time, Matt.”

That was when Manny noticed a lack of ghostly howling. “Where did the ghosts go?” he asked, trying to flex the pain out of his hand.

Everyone scanned the halls. The ghosts had stopped chasing them. They didn’t even see any sign of the Specter. It was just them sitting alone and in pain in the halls.

“Did we lose them?” Rosanna asked.

“Yeah…” Manny replied through a sigh of relief. “I think we did.”

Thank God. He was starting to think those bitches would _never_ let up.

Everyone helped each other up. As they gathered their bearings, Joey spoke up.

“Just out of curiosity,” Joey panted, “no one got to the library, right?”

“ _We_ didn’t,” Teala replied.

“Neither did we,” Jc added.

“We didn’t either,” Joey concluded.

Despite his better judgement, Manny couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. Sure, they’d just been chased by a bunch of ghosts, and the wise thing to do would probably be to continue their skedaddling to the nearest exit. But they’d also planned to search the library once they were all together again. He’d found some good clues with his own group, and he’d be willing to guess the others had, too. Surely, there had to be at least one more thing waiting to be found.

Still, it wasn’t safe there anymore.

“I think we’d better leave for now,” Manny suggested. “We don’t need to abandon the idea of looking in the library, but it’s not safe here anymore.”

Joey nodded in agreement, and Manny was _so_ glad they were on the same page. “Why don’t we call it a night for now?” Joey offered. “We all did everything we could, but we can’t really focus on this without somehow running into the-”

“Ghosts!” Nikita cried, pointing down the hall.

“Yes, exactly.” Joey said.

“No!” Nikita grabbed Joey’s shoulders with both hands, and spun him around to face where she’d pointed. “It’s the fucking _ghosts!_ ”

Manny peered in the same direction. Surely enough, Simon, Robert and Catherine had found them again, and were speeding towards them.

“ _Oh, my God!_ ” Manny shrieked.

Thankfully, there was an exit just down the hall. Without a moment’s hesitation, they all made a beeline for it.

 

Joey held one of the double doors open for his friends as they all filed outside. Once all ten of them were out, Joey moved away from the doors as they shut. When they were all a few yards away, they could still see the ghosts coming for them.

As Joey was debating whether he should keep running or shove the door shut, he saw Roi take a salt shaker out of his pocket.

Roi wound back his hand and screamed, “Throwing the _SAAAAALLLLLT!!_ ”

Joey watched as Roi hurled the salt shaker at the door. It shattered upon impact, and salt and broken glass covered the bottom of the doors. Joey could see the ghosts in the windows as they stopped in their tracks. They gnarled and shrieked at the gang, pounding on the doors to be let out, but they were powerless to cross the barrier.

Joey turned to Roi. “Did you have that with you the entire time?”

“Yeah, I did,” Roi replied. ‘I found it in the kitchen and I wanted to save it.”

“So why didn’t you use it inside?” Nikita demanded. “You could have used that any time when we were _running for our lives_ in there.”

Nikita _did_ have a point, but what Roi said next made Joey understand a little better.

“I know,” Roi asserted. “I wanted to save it for an emergency, but I didn’t want to hurt them.” He glanced back at the doors. “I know we’re trying to help the school, but we’re trying to help _them,_ too, remember?”

Someone pounded on the door again, and the group took a few steps back. As jarring as the sight was, Joey saw what Roi meant. With everything they knew about those three, they couldn’t have _always_ been like that.

These ghosts weren’t evil. Not _really,_ anyway. They were desperate; desperate to move on and return to the people they used to be. They still needed help.

“Smart move, Roi,” Joey said with a smile.

“Really?” Roi asked. He sounded a bit surprised.

“Yeah,” Matt agreed. “You just helped us, but the ghosts weren’t hurt in the process.”

He took the words right out of Joey’s mouth. The others seemed to agree, too. Joey even heard Nikita mutter a silent, “Thanks.”

As they were about to start off, Joey began to ask about all the clues his friends found during their respective investigations. “So, what did everyone-”

The ghosts shrieked louder, banging on the doors and demanding to be let out. The scene was enough to send the gang flying in one last screaming frenzy back to the parking lot.

Hey, they might have been trying to help the ghosts, but that didn’t mean the ghosts themselves knew not to hurt them!

“ _Go go go go go!!!_ ” Joey cried.

“Oh, _NO,_ bitch!” Nikita babbled.

“Oh, shit!” Jc exclaimed. “Oh, shit! _Oh, shit!_ ”

“Goddammit!” Safiya screamed. “This is why I don’t mess with ghosts!”

Needless to say, the gang wasn’t as concerned about someone seeing or hearing them outdoors as they were when they first arrived. It hardly took any time for them to arrive at the parking lot, where they all separated into their designated rides. Matt scrambled to get his keys out of his pocket as he, Rosanna and Safiya hastily climbed into his Pontiac. When Jc, Roi, Teala and Colleen reached the latter’s Civic, they practically tore the doors off the hinges trying to get them open. Joey, flour bags still in hand, tugged on the back door to let Nikita in. He then slammed it shut, then joined Manny in the front.

“Hurry!” Nikita cried.

“I am!” Manny shouted, jamming the keys into the ignition.

The van roared to life, and Manny sped off. A quick glance out the window showed Joey that the other two cars were driving off, too. Once they rounded a bend and the school was out of sight, Joey finally let himself breathe.

“ _Hoooh,_ boy!” Joey exclaimed as he sank back into the seat. He placed his two flour bags down onto the floor. He hadn’t realized how tightly he’d been clenching them until he noticed a slight pain in his fingers.

Manny slammed his hands on the wheel as they came to a stop light. “You guys, I’m _shook!_ ”

Nikita adjusted herself so that she could see between the two front seats. “Well, there’s our cardio for the next couple of weeks,” she said breathlessly.

They stayed quiet for a bit until the light turned green, and Manny started off again. As they tried to bring themselves back down from their crazy being-chased high, Joey realized he hadn’t been with Manny and Nikta throughout most of the time they were there.

“Are you guys okay?” Joey asked them. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”

“We’re fine,” Nikita assured him. “You weren’t hurt either, right?”

“I’m okay,” Joey replied.

“By the way,” Manny said, “what’s up with the flour?” He pointed at the bags Joey had dropped on the floor.

“It’s not flour, actually,” Joey replied. “It’s pudding. About six or seven cups each. My group and I forgot to grab some while we were snooping for clues, so Roi and Colleen and I went back for it.”

“Oh! I forgot about that. Thanks for that, Joey.”

Nikita raised her hand and asked, “When was this exactly?”

Joey hesitated for a moment. “While we were being chased…” he replied with an embarrassed smile.

Nikita and Manny both burst out laughing at the utter recklessness of it all. Joey joined them. In all honesty, it was a crazy attempt. They _did_ get a bunch of pudding, though, so at least it paid off.

“I think those people are rubbing off on you,” Nikita told him.

“Is that a bad thing?” Joey asked.

NIkita shrugged, but she didn't otherwise say anything.

She could deny it if she wanted, but Joey could tell the others were growing on Nikita. She sometimes got that way if something like this happened. She would want to be friends with someone, but she’d sometimes be hesitant to open up to them. But her energy seemed different now than it had been over the past week. Maybe the others had somehow found a way through that icy heart of her’s after all.

“So, what happens now?” Nikita asked.

“I say we make a plan,” Joey suggested. “We found a bunch of stuff while we were there, but I still feel like we’re missing something.”

Manny nodded in agreement. “I feel like it would be best to go over everything once we’re all back at school on Monday.”

“Wait,” Joey said, “you actually want to go back?”

“We still didn’t get any memo about classes being cancelled like Mr. Cash said. As far as I’m concerned, the board is sweeping this under the rug as a prank.” Manny paused for a second. “Besides, we still have a mystery to solve. There’s no way in hell I’m gonna let the others down.”

Joey was pretty surprised to hear Manny say that. He would have expected Manny to scold them for suggesting even stepping a mile within the school, especially after that crazy chase. By now, though, he seemed more ready and willing to get back to business.

Nikita reached over and squeezed Manny’s arm reassuringly. “That’s my girl.”

Joey smiled at his friends. He was so glad the two of them were solving this with him, and that the rest of the team was there alongside them. They’d been through so much in just a short span of time, and the ten of them still managed to work together.

He just hoped he was doing a good job as a leader. Or at least, kind of a leader. It occurred to him that he’d sort of just assumed the role. Either way, if his friends, both old and new alike, were committed to finishing the case, _he_ would be, too.

He spent the next couple of minutes staring out the window as streetlights and buildings zipped passed. Normally, if Manny was driving, he’d have music playing. He _did_ have very good taste in music, after all. Unsurprisingly, none of them were really concerned about that.

 

Meanwhile, back at the school, the ghosts had gathered in the main building. The Specter rubbed his temple where the door to the auditorium slammed into it. He’d better not have a concussion after this.

“Well, _that_ could have gone better!” he scolded the three ghosts. He turned to face Catherine. “I thought you were going after the brats in the cafeteria!”

“ _I was,_ ” Catherine assured him. “ _I just needed to find Simon first, so I could discuss some..._ ” Her eyes fluttered over to Robert for a brief second. “ _Personal matters._ ”

Robert glanced at Catherine. It seemed almost longing. Simon gave both of them a small smile.

The Specter groaned. “That doesn’t matter. What _does_ matter is finding the missing case like we’d discussed originally. And we can’t do that with people snooping around. If those kids try anything else, make sure they remain off of school grounds. Is that clear?”

Simon nodded. “ _Yes sir..._ ”

Robert tipped his hat. “ _Yes..._ ”

Catherine folded her hands. “ _Very well..._ ”

The Specter’s patience was running thin. They’d gotten lucky this time, but now they knew that the Specter was merely an act. He was running out of time.

On the other hand, maybe those kids would come in handy somehow...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, the chase scene. One of the most chaotic, yet important elements of any Scooby-Doo story...
> 
> Next time: The gang makes a plan via group text. And Joey and Colleen finally (finally!) talk things out.


	13. Communication

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> T/W: This chapter deals with some themes of loneliness, mentions of bullying, and feelings of helplessness and abandonment. If these are sensitive topics for you, please read carefully. Take care, guys <3

It didn’t take Manny long to drop Joey and Nikita off. Nikita didn’t live too far from school, so she was let out first. Joey would be dropped off last before Manny went home for the night. By the time they arrived at Joey’s house, almost all the lights were off, other than the porch light, and the lights in the kitchen.

“Are you gonna be okay getting home?” Joey asked as Manny pulled into the driveway.

“It’s not that far,” Manny assured him. “I’ll be okay. Just get some rest if you can. Try not to let that freaking nightmare ruin your sleep too much.”

“Same to you. Thanks for the ride.”

“No worries. Night, Joey.”

“Goodnight.”

Joey grabbed his pudding sacks, pushed the door open and stepped out of the van. He climbed up the steps of his front porch and unlocked his door. He watched Manny drive off as he stepped inside. He was glad Manny was the kind of person who waited until his friends got in their house to drive off after he dropped them off.

Joey shut the porch light off and entered the kitchen. He made a beeline for the fridge and stuck the bags of pudding inside. He expected someone to be waiting for him, but he was a bit relieved to find that no one was there. Well, no one other than Wolfie, one of his huskies. He rushed up to Joey, who knelt down to pet him.

“Hey, sweet boy!” Joey gushed quietly, scratching Wolfie behind his ears.

Thankfully, Wolfie wasn’t barking. But he stuck his tongue out and panted excitedly, smiling a big ol’ doggo smile. Joey usually joked about Wolfie being his favorite, even though he loved all his husky children equally, but Wolfie was earning some major Good Boy Points right now.

“Are your brother and sister sleeping?” he asked as he glanced around the kitchen.

Wolfie sniffed in response, and Joey took that as a “yes.” Lark and Storm, his other two huskies, probably fell asleep a while ago like the lazy butts they were. It seemed likely they were in his room; that’s where they usually were when Joey came home.

Well, at least the human part of his family didn’t seem to be awake. Awesome. He did _not_ have the energy to make up details about the movie he was supposedly seeing with Manny and Nikita.

“Come on, boy,” Joey whispered. “Let’s go upstairs.”

He lead Wolfie up to his room, and his furry companion proceeded to push open the already cracked door with his nose. Sure enough, both of Joey’s other dogs were there, curled up in their respective beds. Lark’s and Storm’s heads perked up as Joey entered his room, and they instantly shot off their beds to say hello.

 _It’s so hard being the father of three rowdy dogs,_ Joey thought to himself

It wasn’t until Joey calmed them all down and plopped down on his own bed when he noticed his phone was suddenly blowing up. He pulled it out of his pocket to find that Roi was bombing the group chat.

 

 **Roi:** Is everyone okay???

 **Roi:** HELLO

 **Roi:** ARE YOU ALL ALIVE

 **Roi:** OLLIE OLLIE OXENFREE

 **Rio:** Wait did I use that right?

 **Roi:** GUYS!!!!

 **Jc:** i'm still at my house dude, still good here. u saw me walk inside

 **Jc:** and yeah, u did use it right

 **Teala:** Colleen and I are still driving. And still alive.

 **Ro:** Matt Saf and I just got to my house. We’re all good here.

 **Joey:** i’m good too. Manny just dropped me off

 **Nikita:** i somehow managed to get into my house without waking anyone, so yeah

 **Roi:** Okay awesome :)

 **Jc:** so we have clues and nobody died, what’s the game plan?

 

Joey exited the Messages app for a moment to look over what he found with the rest of his group. He didn’t have time to jot everything down back at the school, so he’d done it in the van instead.

 

  * _A bunch of flour bags in garbage bin_


  * _Weird powdery substance in trash bin under bags. Felt coarse_


  * _Safety fuse box, used for rockets? Could have been part of explosion_



Okay, those were pretty solid clues. So far so good, if he said so himself. Even so, after everything that just went down, Joey was apprehensive about returning to the library right away. He didn’t want to do that while they were all alone, not at the expense of himself and his friends. Maybe he’d just check with the others to make sure.

 

 **Joey:** i’m thinking it probably isn’t safe to go back to the library tomorrow

 **Manny:** NOW you’re starting to think sensibly lol

 **Joey:** didn’t your parents ever teach you not to text and drive?

 **Manny:** Well i’m not driving anymore, soooooooo

 **Joey:** okay okay

 **Joey:** we shouldn’t put this off tho. we do need to check out the library at some point to see if anything’s there

 **Safiya:** true, we never got to scope out that place

 **Matt:** What about Monday? If it turns out we do have school as planned, should we go over everything and search the library then?

 **Joey:** sounds good to me. what say you all?

 **Safiya:** i’m down. we’ll probably find more if we’re looking during broad daylight.

 **Jc:** and we won’t be completely alone in the building this time around

 **Nikita:** let’s do it

 **Colleen:** yeah i’m game!

 **Ro:** Me too!

 **Teala:** Let’s go for it!

 **Manny:** I’m with you guys, we’ll need somewhere decently private to talk about our clues tho

 **Roi:** How about we meet at the quad during lunch? It’s spacious enough for us to separate ourselves from people.

 

Joey was brought back to earlier, when Roi had first suggested eating at the quad. He gave the idea a bit of thought, and decided it was a pretty good plan.

 

 **Joey:** that’s a good idea!

 **Safiya:** yeah, let’s go for it

 **Ro:** Ooooooh, I kinda always wanted to try eating out there! I hope it’ll be nice enough out.

 **Jc:** i think it’s supposed to be

 **Joey:** and no one bring lunch that day. colleen roi and i will have you all covered.

 **Teala:** Are u buying us all lunch or something?

 **Roi:** You’ll see…

 **Safiya:** i may know what u guys are talking about…

 **Colleen:** yeeeaaaah ya do ;)

 **Nikita:** okay this is a little disconcerting. i think i’m also falling aaslep so i tink im dognjn fe hbbik

 **Jc:** nikita? did u fall asleep?

 **Jc:** guys i think nikita fell asleep

 **Manny:** Yeah she did. Trust me, that happens sometimes

 **Matt:** It’s getting pretty late. I think we should all probably try to get to sleep.

 **Roi:** Well, you can’t very well solve a mystery if you don’t get your required 8 hours of sleep.

 **Ro:** My dog seems to agree. She’s using my arm as a pillow. I guess this is my life now lol.

 

Joey finally glanced at the time display at the top of his screen. 11:37. Anyone in their right mind (AKA, anyone who hadn’t spent the past few hours running around a dark, spooky, haunted school) was either asleep, or staring at their phone in bed with all the lights off by now. Technically, Joey was doing the latter, except his lights were still on.

Maybe Matt was right. As hard as it would probably be for him to sleep, he might as well at least try. Everyone bid their goodnights, and Joey finally set his phone down on his nightstand.

He probably wouldn’t be able to shower without disturbing the others in his house, so he figured he’d save that for the morning. Joey proceeded to do his usual routine and said goodnight to the dogs.

As he was finally about to hit the sack, his phone started ringing.

Joey sighed. _Who on God’s green earth is calling me at midnight?_

He picked up his phone to see who it was, expecting it to be someone asking about his data plan or some shit. However, he was surprised to find that it was Colleen. He didn’t really know what else to do, so he answered.

“Hey, Colleen,” he said. He made sure to talk quietly so he wouldn’t wake anyone up.

“ _Hey,_ ” Colleed replied.

“Is everything okay?”

“ _Yeah, everything’s good. I’m staying at Teala’s place for the night._ ”

In the background, Joey could hear Teala chirping, “ _Hi, Joey!_ ”

“Hi, Teala!” he replied. Her cheery energy seemed to transfer to him through the phone.

Joey could hear Colleen and Teala whispering on the other line. He couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but he caught a “ _Go on,_ ” from Teala at the end.

Colleen sighed, like she was getting ready for something. Joey didn’t know what to expect until she asked, “ _Do you wanna hang out tomorrow? Like, tomorrow afternoon?_ ”

Joey paused for a second. It had been so long since Colleen had asked him that. He wondered why for a moment. Then it suddenly occurred to him that he’d promised her a little while ago that they’d continue their conversation from earlier. She must have told Teala about it, and now she was encouraging Colleen to go through with it.

“ _You still there, Silent Joe?_ ” Colleen asked.

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, I’m still here. Sure, let’s do it. Where do you wanna go?”

There was a pause at the other line, like Colleen was contemplating that.

“ _How about an In-N-Out run?” Colleen suggested. “We can just grab some food and just talk in the car to avoid any unwanted eavesdroppers._ ”

“In-N-Out sounds good,” Joey agreed. “You’ll have to drive, though.”

“ _You’ve yet to get your licence, huh?_ ” 

“Yes ma’am.”

“ _No problem. I’ll just swing by around two and get you then. You still live  in the same house, right?_ ”

Joey nodded, but he realized Colleen wouldn’t be able to see him. “Yep, same one.”

“ _Awesome. I’ll see you tomorrow, then._ ”

“Later, Colleen.”

Joey waited until Colleen hung up, then he set his phone back down and turned off the lights. He was a little skeptical about how well he’d sleep that night, though. Between all the excitement of that evening, the fact that he’d probably have the same damn nightmare for the umpteenth time, and the anticipation of seeing Colleen the next day, he’d be lucky if he could even close his eyes.

That was his last thought as his head hit the pillow. He drifted off almost immediately.

 

Joey wasn’t quite sure how, but the nightmare he’d been having for the past week seemed… different. It was still the same dream - being chased through the dark by disembodied voices. The difference was how long it seemed to last. Normally, the nightmare would last throughout the night. Last night, it seemed to appear and disappear at random intervals. He would be having a normal dream, and then he’d be yanked into the darkness. Then he’d run around for a bit, the voices calling his name, until he was set back in the place he’d been yanked out of. So on and so forth until it was morning.

 _Could that have happened with the others, too?_ he wondered. He’d have to talk it over with everyone when he saw them all again.

He pushed the thought out of his head for the time being, and went back to rummaging through his closet. He had a little less than an hour before Colleen showed up to pick him up. He just had to find his old phone first. If she had sent him messages and he didn’t see them, he was curious as to what they’d said. He figured he might as well give himself some peace of mind instead of letting himself worry about it forever.

He tossed another pair of jeans aside. He’d been digging around for that thing for the past twenty minutes, and still hadn’t had any luck. It had to be in there somewhere! He could swear he’d seen it recently.

Finally, after shoving one of his old hoodies aside, he found it resting next to an old shoe box. It was a grey LG Cosmos, but he couldn’t quite remember which generation it was. By sheer luck, the charger was right next to it. His parents got him this phone near the end of sixth grade for making calls, and pretty much only making calls. It had texting, of course, which it kinda sucked at. It did have a keyboard, though, so that was something cool about it. Joey knew four years wasn’t that long ago, but it felt so obsolete compared to his current iPhone.

Joey left the closet and sat down at his desk. He then plugged the charger into the wall, and the phone into the charger. He almost doubted the old thing would even turn on after this long. By some miracle, however, the phone turned on.

“Well, how about that?” Joey remarked, feeling satisfied with himself.

Joey suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. Sure, this phone couldn’t do much, but it was his first phone. He was practically a baby when he first got this. Then again, it was middle school. It was probably the only thing at that time he was nostalgic about.

He entered the texting app, and scrolled a bit until he saw Colleen’s name. He knew it was her because he’d had her written as “colleeeeeeeeeen <3.” Joey sighed at the sight of Colleen’s listing. Everyone liked to either misspell or drag out words in middle school. He couldn’t believe the things that kids his age thought were cool back then.

He was still a little nervous about this. Colleen had said that she’d tried getting in touch with Joey, but eventually gave up. What kinds of messages had Joey ignored during that time?

He tried to shrug it off. It may not be that bad. Still, he looked away from the screen almost immediately until he scrolled to the top of their conversations.

His first text to her was a few weeks before their seventh grade year started.

 

August 3rd, 2012

 **joey:** hey girl! this is joey :)

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** OMG REALLY???

 **Joey:** yeppers!!!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** yay! it’s about time u got a phone

 **joey:** u havent had urs that long either

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** touche lollll

 

Joey cringed a little. _God, we really_ were _in middle school,_ he thought.

He skimmed through a few more messages until he got to their first day of school.

 

August 23rd

 **joey:** we dont have any classes together!!!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** ugggghhh i know :(

 **joey:** dont worry, we can still hang whenever!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3: **awesome sauce! :)

 

September 14th

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** hey buddy! u wanna come over this friday for a movie nite?

 

September 15th

 **joey:** GAH sorry! mr rogers gave us a pile of work again

 **joey:** maybe next time?

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** totally! no worries

 

Joey remembered that movie. It was _The Emperor's New Groove._ They had their movie night the next Friday like he’d said. At least Joey kept true to that plan.

 

October 27th

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** wanna go trick or treating with me and my brothers and sister again this year?

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** u there?

 

October 30th

 **Joey:** hey sorry! ive been really busy

 **joey:** i dont know if i can go this year

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** awwwwwww :(

 **joey:** sorry!!!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3: **it’s okay, happy halloween joey!

 

Joey’s heart sank a little. He’d gone trick or treating with the Ballingers for five years up until then, and he hadn’t gone with them since.

 

November 3rd

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** the kids in math were at it again today. wouldnt stop calling me stick figure or theatre freak.

 **joey:** god, again? those kids are jerks.

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** ikr. like i get it. im skinny and i like acting n singing n dancing n stuff. is that SO bad? u get what i mean rite?

 

November 4th

 **joey:** yeah, seriously!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3: **u gotta get better at texting back lol

 **joey:** ur probably right hahah

 

That last bit stung Joey a little more than it probably should have. Even back then, he knew Colleen was just joking. But now that he had an idea of how he’d treated her back then…

He scrolled down a bit more, and he noticed his responses to their conversations had become less and less frequent. He would either respond a few hours later, the next day, or he wouldn’t reply at all. Colleen must have had the patience of a saint back then.

One of their conversations was dated on Colleen’s birthday. And, luckily for him, he happened to text her first that day.

 

November 21st

 **joey:** happy 13th colleen!! ur officially a teenager now!!! <3

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** thank uuuuu!!! :)

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3: ** ur coming to the party saturday rite?

 **joey:** that was THIS saturday?????

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** whats wrong?

 **joey:** i have to do a project on the mayflower with a group of other kids. ill be booked all weekend. im so sorry colleen!!

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** the whole weekend?

 

Joey frowned. That was the first time he’d missed Colleen’s birthday in the time they’d been friends. He hadn’t even responded after that.

 

December 7th

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** yo silent joe, whereve u been?

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** we never hang out anymore dude

 

December 14th

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3: **joey u there? i really need to talk to u

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** please, i havent seen you in weeks

 

January 28th

 **colleeeeeeeeeen <3:** joey.

 

And the texts stopped there. She must have sold her phone some time after that.

Joey let his hands fall into his lap, still holding the phone. It felt like that last “joey” had reached out from his phone and punched him in the stomach. It was just his name - a single word - but it felt like it carried so much.

He held the phone close to his chest. He didn’t really know why, but he felt a need to do it. Maybe in an attempt to give thirteen-year-old Colleen the hug she desperately needed.

_I’m sorry, Colleen…_

Lark trotted over and rested her head on Joey’s knee. She probably just wanted some attention, but Joey liked to think she was trying to comfort him. She was an affectionate little floof after all. Joey reached over to pet her. As per usual, she licked his hand.

“Sweet girl,” Joey muttered affectionately.

Why couldn’t everyone in the world be more like dogs? They loved everyone and everything, they were always so excited to see everyone, and all they had to do was sit there and people would love them.

All of a sudden, his phone pinged, signalling a text. Well - his iPhone , the one resting on his bed. Not the one he was holding. He shut his LG Cosmos off, placing the screen face down. He sat on his bed and saw a text from Colleen.

 

 **Colleen:** hey joey, i’m on my way. don’t forget to bring food money.

 **Joey:** gotcha, i’ll see you in a bit.

 

One thing Joey noticed about their texting that was different from when they were thirteen? They used much better punctuation. What hadn’t changed was apparently that they still only texted with lower case letters. Fair enough, since capital letters stressed Joey out a little.

He headed downstairs so he’d be ready when Colleen got there. It probably wouldn’t take long for her to arrive.

He had the house to himself that morning. His parents were out running errands. Nicole, his older sister who was visiting from college for the weekend, took their little brother, Jett, to see a movie. They all knew he was going out with Colleen that day, which was a surprise to them. They hadn’t heard her name in years, after all.

“ _Awww!_ ” Nicole had said. “ _Give her a hug from me when you see her, okay?_ ”

Colleen and Nicole used to absolutely adore each other. Whenever Colleen would come over, Nicole would spread out her arms and yell, “ _Colleeeeeen!_ ” And Colleen would always run over so the two of them could hug.

Joey reluctantly told Nicole he would, even though the two of them weren’t exactly on hugging terms just yet.

Joey plopped himself down at the kitchen table, where Storm was taking a nap. Storm noticed his presence, and rolled over a bit so he’d be closer to Joey. For the second time today, Joey wished he was a dog. Dogs didn’t have to deal with Teen Drama™.

While Joey was ready to get this mess over with, he was still nervous. What if something went wrong? What if someone said or did the wrong thing? What if they got into another fight, and they were stuck in a car together afterwards? What if things just went right back to the way they've been for the past few years, or what if they turned worse, or what if-

Joey banged the palm of his hand on the table. _Okay, stop it, brain!_

Storm perked up. The noise must have scared him.

“Sorry, baby,” Joey apologized, and reached down to rub his head.

Overthinking this wasn’t going to help. Maybe he was just freaking himself out for nothing. Colleen told him herself that she didn’t want to fight with him anymore, and Joey said the same. They ran for their lives and got a crap ton of pudding together. Hell, they did their freaking handshake last night, for crying out loud!

 _I promised her we’d finish talking about this,_ Joey reminded himself. _I owe her_ that _much, at least._

Joey remained at the table while Storm lay at his feet. He managed to distract himself by messing around with his phone until Colleen texted him that she was outside.

“Wish me luck, boy,” Joey said to Storm as he left.

It would be okay. They just needed to talk things through like they did last night at school. This time around, things would be better.

Joey would make sure of it.

 

A month ago, Colleen would have laughed in someone’s face if they told her where she’d be by now. She was driving in her car with her former best friend, turned ex-best friend, turned maybe-kinda-friend-again-hopefully-person in the passenger seat next to her. They were on their way to In-N-Out with various Pentatonix songs playing from Colleen’s aux cord. What surprised her the most (not that it was a bad surprise, mind you) was that they weren’t fighting. They were just… talking. Like they always used to. And they were talking about something as casual as the classes they’d taken for the past year.

“So you’re in drama?” Joey asked. “I thought you’ve never had Calliope before.”

“I haven’t,” Colleen clarified. “I’ve been in Mr. Bridge’s class the past two years. He’s a little boring, but it’s what I got saddled with for this year. Anyway, it’s better than the ones they offered us in middle school.”

Joey rolled his eyes. “Ugh, tell me about it.”

Granted, everything about middle school sucked, but the performing arts program for that school sucked in particular. For example, the theatre teachers weren’t that great at what they did. If a student missed a dance step, or tripped up on a line, they wouldn’t encourage them to do better. Instead, they’d prey on the student’s mistake and make them into an example of what not to do. On top of that, a good portion of the students in the drama and choir classes alike were only there for an easy A. Stuff like that really boiled Colleen’s blood, especially because she wanted to be an actress. Those kids wouldn’t take those classes seriously, and it wasn’t fair to people like Colleen who did take them seriously.

She turned a corner onto a slightly busier road. “I actually ended up dropping out of drama after the first semester,” she said. “Even as a kid, I knew how toxic of an environment that mess was. So…” She made a snipping gesture and pretended to throw something away. “ Bye, henny. ”

Joey grinned. “Who knew you were such a woke twelve-year-old?”

Colleen burst out at the sound of that. “I’m sorry,” she chortled. “ _‘Woke twelve-year-old?’_ ”

Joey laughed with her.

“Anyway,” Colleen continued, “my parents signed me up for an acting class at this community center downtown so I wouldn’t have to give performing up completely. I joined a dance class for good measure, too. I stayed in the school’s choir class, though.”

“Are you still taking those classes? At the community center, I mean.”

“I actually had to quit for a while, but I picked up their dance class again recently. I’m taking both theatre and chorus at school.”

She figured she’d tell him the reason she had to quit her classes when they got their food. Thankfully, they were turning into the drive thru at that moment.

“Have you had their animal style fries before?” she asked.

“I regret to say I have not,” Joey replied.

“You’ve been missing out, girl.”

She pulled her car up to the drive thru, and ordered a single tray for the two of them to share. It was pretty filling by itself, so she figured that would be enough. As an extra precaution, she made sure to ask for a fork for each of them.

“What do we need forks for?” Joey asked.

“Trust me,” Colleen replied. “You need a fork to eat this bitch.”

So they got their fries and their forks. Colleen pulled out of the line and found a space in the parking lot. They could see the road out the front window, as well as the shops across the street. A frozen yogurt shop, a little boutique, and a pet store lined the sidewalk.

“Okay, you eat first,” Colleen insisted.

“Why?” Joey's smile looked almost apprehensive.

“I wanna see the look on your face when you eat these suckers for the first time.”

“If you say so,” Joey said in a singsong voice.

He picked up his plastic fork and scooped up a chunk of fries. The dramatic little breadcrumb of a human being then proceeded to examine the bite at all possible angles, and sniff it a few times.

Colleen pointed her fork at him impatiently. “Oh, for God’s sake, Joey! If you don’t hurry up, I’ll just rip that fork out of your hand and eat it myself!”

“Okay, okay!” Joey finally took a bite. His eyes widened, and, mouth full, he exclaimed, “Oh, my God!”

“Right?” Satisfied, Colleen ate some.

They sat like that for a moment until Joey finally brought up the elephant in the room. Well, the elephant in the car, technically.

“So, Colleen?” Joey asked. “Should we, um…”

And that’s when the entire mood flipped itself upside down.

Colleen dug her fork into her side of the fries, but she didn’t pick it back up for a moment. They had to address this at some point, but she hadn’t realized how nervous she’d been about this conversation until now. Who was to say it wouldn’t just end up reopening old wounds instead of fixing everything?

“I found my old phone this morning,” Joey said after a moment of silence. “I saw some of your old messages.”

She turned down “Can’t Sleep Love” so she could barely hear it anymore, and looked at Joey. He looked about as bad as Colleen felt. She’d almost forgotten about those. She felt embarrassed and guilty at the same time.

“You did?” she asked.

Joey nodded. “I didn’t know how much I was actually ignoring you.”

“You weren-” Out of instinct, she almost denied it, but he wasn’t wrong. He had been ignoring her, but she thought better of mentioning that part.

“What happened?” Joey asked. “When I wasn’t there, what was going on with you?”

Colleen shifted in her seat. “Okay… like I said last night, this is kind of a long story.”

“We’ve got time. It’s okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I am.” Joey sounded a little emotional, but there was still just enough sternness in his tone to ensure that he meant what he said. “Please talk to me, Colleen.”

That was the whole reason they’d come out there, wasn’t it? Joey deserved closure, and she was tired of holding onto her feelings about the whole thing for so long. It was time to finally get everything off her chest.

Colleen took a breath, stared at the passing cars in front of them, and began. “So, a while after seventh grade started, the bullying started, too. It was mostly stuff how skinny I used to be, or how much energy I usually had, or the fact that I was a theatre kid. I tried not to let it get to me, but it eventually affected the way I acted around others. I went from being happy and talkative to going entire days without talking to anyone. I guess I did that so people wouldn’t have a reason to make fun of me.

“So, yeah. That sucked, and I had trouble making new friends after that. But I still had choir at school, and dance and theatre outside of it. Performing was kind of a release for me - it still is. It’s, like, the best therapy. The teachers and other kids in my dance and theatre programs were awesome, too. But then came the ‘adult stuff,’ as my parents called it.” Colleen used air quotes around “adult stuff.”

“What was this ‘adult stuff?’” Joey asked, copying her air quotes.

“I didn’t find out the full story until last year, but my dad was laid off from his job without warning. A lot of other people were, too. And it was all because his boss turned out to be a shady dick. Apparently the guy couldn’t afford to pay some of his employees anymore because he was in debt after borrowing from some higher-ups or something. I think he used my dad’s last check to pay some of it off.”

Joey’s eyes widened. “Holy crap.”

“I know, right? It didn’t matter to that asshole that dad had a wife, four kids and a cat to worry about. Even though my mom was still working, we didn’t really have enough coming in. It was hard for dad to find a new job for a hot second, and it caused a bunch of money problems for us. I mean, we didn’t have a very high amount of money to begin with, but it got pretty bad after that.”

Joey adjusted himself so that he was more faced toward Colleen. “How so?”

“We went from joking about having to eat knock off cereal for the first few months to more serious stuff. Some time after we stopped talking, I even ended up selling my phone for less than it was worth so I could give the money to my parents.”

“So _that’s_ what happened to your old phone.”

Colleen nodded. “Yeah. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t enough.” Her eyes traveled to the steering wheel. “I mean, no one else was really calling or texting me either, so I figured it wouldn’t have mattered. Pretty soon, I had to quit quit taking theatre and dance. They cost about a hundred dollars a month, and we just couldn’t afford them anymore. I was a weeping mess for days.”

“Colleen…” Joey’s voice was soft.

Colleen blinked. A lot. She didn’t want to cry, but it was hard not to keep her eyes from prickling a little. It felt like she was being planted in a memory.

_She was thirteen again. She was alone in her room late at night, and she was balling her eyes out. She’d been trying to fall asleep, but she couldn’t stop thinking about everything going on. She tried not to think about how stressed out her parents seemed to be about everything. She’d kept thinking about how amazing her teachers and her fellow students at the community center were. She’d tried her hardest not to look at her ballet slippers that she would slip and fall in when she’d first started, or the scripts she’d spent so many weeks memorizing, or the costume that she’d have to return by the end of that week._

_And more than anything, she wanted to forget Joey Graceffa. Joey Graceffa, who decided literally anything else was better than talking to her. Joey Graceffa, who lied to her when he said they’d still talk and hang out, even when they couldn’t always see each other. Joey Graceffa, her best friend who abandoned her when she needed him most._

_Stupid, selfish Joey Graceffa, who she wanted so badly to hate, but could never fully bring herself to stop loving._

_So many things she’d loved were disappearing._

“Colleen?” Joey brought her out of her head.

A couple of tears almost fell from her eyes, but she wiped them away before they could.

Joey reached over and rubbed her back reassuringly. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Yeah, I’m good.”

She wasn’t in her room. She was in her car with Joey, and he was listening to her talk about her problems. There was a tray of fries between them, and a salty smell in the air to go with it.

Once she calmed down a little, Colleen kept talking. “Anyway, so many things were going wrong for me that I eventually I just… got used to it for a while, I think. Like, I was basically expecting to be disappointed by things at that point. That kind of helplessness and pessimism messes you up pretty badly. I was so mad and upset all the time, that I didn’t want to find a solution. I just wanted to shut myself in a little bubble until it felt like I was about to burst. I didn’t do anything drastic to myself or anything like that, but it was exhausting to hold onto.”

“I bet it was,” Joey agreed.

Colleen could feel her chest and stomach tightening. She thought back to when she was younger, and that same sensation would latch itself onto her, tenfold. She’d grown to hate that feeling after so many months of feeling it constantly.

 _It’ll go away soon,_ she told herself. _Just keep talking. He wants to listen. It’s gonna be okay._

“It sucked,” Colleen continued. “I hated feeling like that all the time; it wasn’t _me_. It was so emotionally draining. I had my family to talk to, and I knew they loved me. I still had choir, too, but I always felt so alone when I was out of the house and at school.” Colleen leaned back and stared through the skylight. “So… yeah. That’s the tea, sis,” she said halfheartedly.

As morbid as that was, she felt the need to at least try and say something lighthearted. After all that, something had to lighten the mood. It worked, but only a little bit.

 

Joey stared at Colleen. “And… it felt like you couldn’t talk to me about all this?”

Colleen shrugged.“I mean… you never answered your phone whenever I tried to talk to you, and I eventually just gave up trying entirely. I was convinced you hated me. And I know that wasn't the case  now , but…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

Joey felt terrible. He had so many chances to be her friend, and he wasn’t there for her. He wished he could go back in time and slap his thirteen-year-old self in the face. He could have at least called Colleen to make sure she was okay. Even that might have helped a little. Instead, he was too wrapped up in what he was doing.

“I’m sorry, Colleen,” Joey said. He couldn’t look at her. “I’m so sorry… I wish I did more. I feel like a huge bitch.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Colleen said. “I shouldn’t have given you such a hard time.”

“No, I get it. I mean, you had no money, no way to do something you really loved, and I left you with basically no friends. I’d be mad, too.”

“But you didn’t know any of that was going on. I could have at least given you a break from the death glares or something instead of being so petty.”

Joey shrugged. “I probably deserved it.”

Colleen smiled apologetically. “You didn’t deserve to be pushed off a table a couple weeks ago, though.”

“Eh. My butt kinda hurt for a few hours after that.”

“Sorry about that.”

Joey made a face. “Hmmm, I’m not sure ‘sorry’ is enough for that… You’ll just buy me lunch a second time when all this is over and we’ll call it even.”

“Fine,” Colleen groaned. “Just make sure not to get it in my hair this time.”

Joey gave her a look, and Colleen gave him a look. They were both going at it, hard stare vs. hard stare.

And then Joey laughed, and Colleen joined him. It felt so good to finally laugh with his friend after all these years. He felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his back. Two weeks ago, Colleen probably would have immediately stared down at the floor and pretended that she and Joey weren’t in the same room if he tried to look at her. Now, they were working with eight other people to solve a mystery. And they were sitting in a car and eating fries, talking out their problems like adults, and laughing and joking together like kids.

“So, I do have one more question,” Joey said.

Colleen scooped up a couple of fries. “Yeah?”

“Can I ask how Jc, Roi and Teala helped? I mean, if you don’t mind.”

Colleen smiled again. “I don’t mind at all.” She adjusted herself. “So, I wasn’t sure about them at first because of the whole everything-and-everyone-in-this-school-sucks shiz. But they were all really nice to me, and they started growing on me. I was worried about opening up to them at first, though. I thought if I told them how my situation was affecting me, it would rub them the wrong way. I hadn’t realized they were really my friends until this one time…” Colleen trailed off.

“Go on,” Joey encouraged her. “I want to hear about you guys.”

He genuinely did. If this was going in the direction Joey thought it was going, he wanted to hear about how Colleen’s new friends helped her.

So Colleen continued. “So, this one time around the holidays, we were all over at Jc’s place playing video games and junk. I can’t remember what triggered it, but I kinda just… broke down. Like, I started crying right there on Jc’s living room couch.”

“Oh, my God,” Joey muttered. He felt guilty again. “I’m sorry, Colleen.”

“Don’t be. It’s alright,” she assured him. Joey nodded and let her continue. “So, they convinced me to open up about my problems after that. They all really helped me in different ways. Whenever I was freaking out or if I was getting too deep into my own head, Jc would talk to me until I was back on the ground. Roi would always do crazy, ridiculous things to make me laugh if I was feeling like crap. And Teala would always be right there with a shoulder and the world’s biggest hug whenever I needed to cry.”

“They sound like really good friends,” Joey said.

“They are.” Colleen picked up another forkful of fries. “They really did help me when I was going through all of that. I couldn’t not love them back.”

Joey smiled. “I’m glad you found such good people.”

“Thanks. Things have actually gotten a lot better since then. My dad got a better job with a much better supervisor. And like I said, I’m taking chorus and theatre at school, but I started my dance class back up. We even got a new cat.”

“You did?!” Joey piped up.

“Yeah,” Colleen replied with a wide grin. “Her name is Daisy, and she’s the best little brat ever.”

“Awwww, Gus has a sister!”

Colleen proceeded to show Joey a picture of the fluffy grey cat named Daisy. In return, Joey showed her a picture of Lark. She’d met Storm and Wolfie when they were kids, but Joey had gotten Lark just a couple of years prior.

It genuinely made him happy that things were better for Colleen, and he was relieved they were finally talking things out. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt that first popped into his head last night.

At the beginning of everything, he’d basically declared himself the leader of their group without actually declaring anything. He wanted his friends to trust him, but he wasn’t sure how well he was doing in that department. Sure, Manny and Nikita did, and it seemed like Colleen did, too. Probably. But what about the others? Maybe Matt, Rosanna and Safiya had a decent view of him, but he couldn’t really be sure. At the very least, he figured that Jc, Roi and Teala already had a not great view of him.

 

“You okay, Joey?” Colleen asked.

Joey blinked. He looked like he’d been spacing out for a little bit. “Oh, yeah. Sorry,” Joey replied. “The thing is… I’m kinda wondering if I’m really qualified to be helping the others with the mystery. Or something.”

It occurred to Colleen that, this entire time, they hadn’t brought up any of Joey’s problems. She’d just been telling him about her own problems from a few years ago. If they were going to be friends again, the least Colleen could do was ask him about his stuff, too.

“What do you mean?” Colleen wanted to know.

Joey stabbed at the remnants of their fries. “I mean, like, I feel like I just sort of assumed the role of ‘leader’ throughout all of this. The others are counting on me, but I feel like I’m not really that qualified to be a leader. I just don’t know if I’m doing that great of a job, you know?”

Colleen did know. She wouldn’t not step up if people needed her to, but she could definitely understand why Joey was feeling pressured. They probably couldn’t have gotten as far as they had if they were still on the same terms as they were when they were first brought together. But things were very different now.

“For what it’s worth,” Colleen said. “I think you’re doing a pretty good job as a leader.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah. I mean, no one’s died yet, so that’s good. You proved yourself so far, as far as I’ve seen. As for the others… Manny and Nikita obviously believe in you. I’m fairly certain it’s in Ro’s nature to see the best in people. And Matt and Safiya seem like the kind of people who know a team player when they see one.”

“What about Roi, Jc and Teala?”

Colleen had a feeling she knew why Joey asked that. Sure, their then-broken friendship wasn’t the only thing Colleen had been upset about, but it still took its toll. Even so, it was a long time ago.

“They trust you, too, Joey,” Colleen assured him. “I mean, I vented to them about you a couple times, yeah. But they’re past that now, too. They’ve  _been_ past that for a long time, I think. Actually, they really like you.”

“They do?” Joey seemed relieved and a little surprised to hear that.

“Yeah. I mean, Jc convinced me to cut you some slack back at the cemetery. Teala encouraged me to talk to you last night. And Roi called me this morning just to say how awesome you were when you were helping us last night.”

“That… that means a lot.”

“Maybe just keep doing what you’ve been doing so far,” Colleen suggested. “It looks like it’s working.”

“I sure hope so.”

Colleen glanced down at their tray to see how much was left. To her surprise, it was almost bone dry, save for a few rogue crumbs.

Colleen blinked in shock. “Did… did we eat all the fries without knowing?”

Joey shrugged. “I guess so.”

Colleen couldn’t believe it. They must have been so caught up in their conversation that they hadn’t realized they were finishing their food off. As much as she loved food, she’d never eaten an entire meal and not realized it. But, in this case, maybe that was a good thing.

The tightness in her stomach was long gone. It could have had to do with the fries she'd just finished off, but Colleen was mostly just glad she and Joey were cool again. They weren’t quite ready to go home yet, though. Instead, they sat there, catching up with each other with anecdotes. From funny stories about their families and friends, to more pictures of their pets, and classes they were hoping to take next year.

“I hope to God I get Mortimer next year,” Colleen said. “Mr. Cash is such a dick.”

“Tell me about it,” Joey agreed. “I’m actually planning on joining drama next year myself.”

“That sounds awesome! I’m hoping I get Calliope as my teacher next year.”

Calliope used to scare the living daylights out of Colleen, especially when she was a freshman. And she’d hardly known anything about Mortimer. But over the past few weeks - despite the fact that they both supervised their detentions - Colleen decided they were alright. They definitely earned some extra points for saving her and the others from the wrath of Ms. Wilson and Mr. Cash on Friday.

Joey seemed to agree. “I bet some of the others might like the thought of us being in Calliope’s class, too.”

Colleen smiled. She knew who he was talking about. “You know, I actually kinda knew Matt, Ro and Safiya before we all saw each other in detention,” she told Joey. “Well, I knew _of_ them. I’ve been in theatre club and choir with them for the past two years, but we never really talked. I always secretly wanted to be friends with them, though.”

“Maybe it was destiny that we were all tied together by this then,” Joey joked.

“Quite possibly.”

 

Time seemed to pass without either of them noticing. Before Joey knew it, Colleen was driving him home. He might have been apprehensive about today before, but he was in a really good mood now that they’d finally talked. He felt a little ridiculous for being worried.

Colleen ended up singing along to some songs on the way back, and Joey was amazed. He’d always been aware of the fact that Colleen could sing like a professional bad bitch, but he’d never realized how much she grew as a singer. She would sometimes alter notes so she could sing them higher than they originally were, but she did it flawlessly. Joey was stunned by how freaking amazing her voice was; she was operatic in every way he could think of.

“Come on, soprano!” Joey cheered after one of Colleen’s high notes.

Colleen laughed, but Joey couldn’t tell if it was because she was amused or embarrassed. Either way, it looked like she was enjoying herself, and Joey was happy that his friend was happy.

“There’s my stop,” Joey said as they pulled up to his house.

Colleen pulled to the curb and parked the car. “We’re still meeting in the quad for lunch tomorrow, right?”

“Yep. I’m so ready to hear what everyone found last night!”

“I know, right?” Colleen’s eyes lit up, like she just remembered something. “You still have your pudding stash, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll bring it tomorrow.”

“Cool, don’t forget.”

“Indeed, ma’am.”

Joey climbed out of Colleen’s car and made his way up the driveway. As he was halfway to his house, he heard a car door shut, and Colleen yelled, “Joey!”

Joey started to turn around. “Yeah?-”

He was surprised to see that Colleen had gotten out of her car. She rushed up to Joey, and when he was fully facing her, she threw her arms around him. It was a little unexpected at first, but it didn’t take Joey long to hug her back. He couldn’t believe how much he’d missed Colleen’s hugs.

When they finally pulled apart, Colleen smiled and said, “Thanks, Joey.”

“Anytime,” Joey replied.

Maybe their friendship would be a little different from when they were younger given what they’ve been through, but maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. They were older and (somewhat) more mature than they used to be. They’d both put effort into making things better. It would be okay.

Colleen walked back to her car as Joey climbed up to his porch. As he opened the door, he heard an engine starting up. He turned around just in time to see Colleen drive off. It was just like Manny did whenever _he_ dropped off a friend.

Nicole and Jett were sitting at the table when Joey got to the kitchen.

“Hey, Joey,” Nicole said when she saw him. “You look happy. How was it?”

“It went absolutely swimmingly,” Joey replied happily.

Joey was feeling particularly energetic and productive, so he decided to put it to use. He spent the better part of the remainder of the afternoon going over his misadventures. He sat at his desk, looking over notes on his phone, and copying things down in a notebook. He listed where, when and how they’d found different clues. He jotted down some theories, a short list of possible suspects, and some ways to pursue the mystery further.

For the first time in his life, he was looking forward to Monday.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally nervous about how well this particular chapter would turn out. I wanted to make sure I was REEAAALLLLYY satisfied with it before I posted it. (I honestly didn't expect this chapter to be as long as it was, wow) I hope you all like how this turned out!
> 
> But hey, at least our dudes finally worked everything out right? Now all that's left is for them to actually make up in the show! Good thing they're already kinda on track to doing so! Hopefully...
> 
> Next Time: The gang returns to the scene of the crime, and has a couple of close calls. Also, Manny and Teala find out what the ghosts are after, some of the gang plays a game of dodgeball, and Nikita gives out a few gentle reminders not to mess with her friends.


	14. A Series of Close Calls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanna let you guys know I edited the "Next Time" section at the end of the last chapter a bit, so you can look at that if you want
> 
> Also, t/w: there's gonna be some bullying, as well as a minor homophobic comment. There's also a bit more swearing that usual (because, well, Nikita). Stay safe my dudes <3

The wind blew against Roi’s face as he rode his bike to school Monday morning. This was undoubtedly the _best_ way to start off his day!

Roi lived close enough to school to bike there and back home. In order to get to school, he passed through a courtyard in an outdoor shopping center a few blocks away from his house. It was usually quiet in the mornings, which was just how Roi liked it! That meant he could ride through as fast as he wanted without worrying about hurting anyone.

He peddled through a path of floor fountains as fast as his legs would allow. One by one, each of the fountains went off behind him as he sped past. He timed it perfectly, meaning he wouldn’t have an extra shower before he got to school. It was always so unbelievably satisfying!

And there it was. The best part of his commute. The curb leading out of the courtyard. 

“Here it comes…” Roi said as he approached the curb.

He peddled faster. It was so close! He was almost there!

“Here it comes… Here it comes! _Here it comes!_ ”

His bike propelled off the curb, and he went airborne for a brief, glorious second. His wheels landed back on the pavement and he kept going.

He raised his fists in the air and cheered. “ _Whoooooo!_ \- Woah!”

His moment ended when he almost lost his balance and had to grab the handle bars again. And yes, he was aware that the curb wasn’t that high. But did that ever stop him from pretending that he was doing an awesome bike stunt? Uh, _no!_ He liked feeling excited about stuff, okay?

A few minutes later, he arrived at school. He climbed off his bike once he entered the quad, and stuck his helmet in his backpack (Hey, just because he’s a daredevil doesn’t mean he’s above wearing a helmet!). He then pulled his phone out of a pocket on the side of his backpack, and read through some of his texts on his way to the bike racks.

_Okay, phone. Let’s see whatcha got for me today._

The first message he skimmed through was an automatic message from the school: “Due to recent events, police will be present on school grounds tomorrow to ensure no foul play will ensue. The day will operate as normal.”

Roi pulled his eyes away from his phone to get a look around. There were at least two police cruisers in the parking lot that he could see. He hoped the police’s presence wouldn’t put too much of a damper on his and his friends’ investigation.

 _Well, at least the school had the decency to tell us why the cops are here,_ Roi figured. _Better than having everyone worry about it all day._

He then took a gander at the recent messages in the group chat. The evening before, Manny had asked the others if they lived close by and needed a ride to school. Joey apparently already rode with him, so it wouldn’t have been too much trouble. It turned out they were already covered for the most part. Rosanna and Teala were each driven by Matt and Colleen respectively. Jc had his skateboard, Safiya and Roi rode their bikes, and Nikita straight up roller skated to school.

Honestly, though, it would be cool if they could all ride in that van of Manny’s together. If the occasion ever called for it, Roi had a feeling they’d all be piling into that giant wonder from the 70s in the time it had taken Roi to fly off the curb in the shopping center.

The most recent text was sent by Joey earlier that morning: 

 

 **Joey:** don’t forget to meet up in the quad for lunch today. just keep your eyes peeled for anything weird, or anyone suspicious of us.

 

Roi took note of that. Between the ghosts, the cops, and a choice few of the adults, they’d probably have some crap on their plates today.

On the bright side, they wouldn’t have to deal with it alone. After everything that happened over the past few days, Roi had a feeling that the ten of them wouldn’t be leaving each other in the dust any time soon.

 

A few days ago, after the gang first encountered the ghosts, Safiya seriously considered staying home that Monday. Considering the hauntings, the police officers on campus, and the fact that a couple of students were already giving her weird looks, she probably had some good reasons to. But she didn’t want to stay home because:

  1. It would only raise more suspicion among her peers and some of the teachers.
  2. Her mom could easily tell whenever Safiya was faking being sick, and
  3. She was having the time of her life solving the mystery.



It was probably a number of things. The memory of duping a ghost, the idea becoming the diet goth version of Nancy Drew, and being part of an entire team of junior detectives had crossed her mind. Looking back on it now, she’d have to be crazy not to come to school on that particular day. She spent the past few days living out the mystery novels and shows she’d grown up loving! Who in their right mind would pass _that_ up?

The bike racks she normally used were located by the side of the music building. Once she was close, she noticed a few of the others were hanging around. Roi was locking his bike and chatting with Jc, who had a skateboard tucked under his arm. Nikita was sitting on a nearby bench, shoving her roller skates into her backpack and switching them out for a pair of boots.

Roi caught sight of her first. “Hey, Saf! Come here!”

“What’s up, guys?” Safiya asked as she started to lock her bike.

Jc leaned back against the brick wall. “We were just talking about our chase the other night. Apparently all of our groups were chased by Robert except the theatre group.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Nikita said as she got up to join the group. “I would’ve thought the three of them would each go off and chase one group.”

It wasn’t much, but Safiya still considered it odd. Matt had told her and Rosanna the other night that Catherine and Simon were both chasing his group. She wondered why Robert was left to handle two groups.

“Can ghosts teleport?” Roi asked. “They had no problem finding us, no matter where we were.”

“I don't really know,” Safiya replied. “I mean, I don’t think ghosts really obey the laws of physics, so it’s entirely possible that-”

All of a sudden-

“ _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!_ ”

Someone started screaming bloody murder from somewhere in the quad. Nikita stumbled and caught herself on a rack. Safiya jumped so high that she almost cleared a bike wheel. Jc dropped his board and leaped onto the bench. Roi flailed his arms around like he was trying to hit something.

“What the hell?!” Nikita screamed.

“What's going on?!” Safiya yelled.

Safiya frantically whipped her head around the quad, trying to find the screamer. What was happening?! Was it one of the ghosts? Was it the Specter?!

As it turned out, it was neither. Safiya saw someone running through the quad, wearing a black hoodie and a Ghostface mask. Judging from the sound of the scream, it was probably a boy.

“ _Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!_ ” the guy kept screaming.

A few other kids were jumping and yelping, too. Others were cracking up at the scene. Whoever the stranger was, he must have thought it would be funny to pretend to be the very person who was terrorizing the school.

He eventually made a beeline for the bike racks, and he must have had no intention of looking out for Safiya and the others.

Jc yelled, “Dude! Watch where you’re-!”

But the guy didn’t listen. Before Roi could move out of the way, the masked stranger crashed into him. It was so forceful that Roi was knocked to the ground. He landed on his hands and knees, wincing in pain.

“ _Roi!_ ” Safiya cried out.

What was that guy’s problem?! He just knocked over her friend on _purpose!_

But before the shock fully set in, the guy crashed into _her!_ Safiya fell back, landing hard on the ground. She felt a stinging pain as she scraped her elbow on the pavement.

 

Nikita pushed herself up, holding the racks for support. She heard the crashes, and saw both Safiya and Roi on the ground. They looked like they were in pain.

Her eyes widened at the sight. Blood roared in her ears. She gritted her teeth and snarled. She clenched her fists so hard that her perfectly done nails felt like they were digging into her palms.

Nikita caught sight of the bastard, and he was still going. He was whooping and screaming like he was a kid going to fucking Disneyland.

Without thinking, Nikita started to charge after him. “Why, you _little-!_ ”

She didn’t get very far before she felt a pair of hands gripping her right arm. It took a second, but Nikita skidded ot a stop. She whirled around to get a look at the idiot who just stopped her, only to find that it wasn’t an idiot. It was Jc.

“ _Nikita!_ ” Jc exclaimed, and Nikita almost jumped again. He was obviously trying to keep calm, but stern anger flickered in his eyes. “What the hell are you doing?!”

Holy shit. Nikita was just realizing that she’d never seen Jc like that before. The most angry she’d ever seen him was back at the cafeteria. And even then, it was more frustration than anything else.

The shock didn’t last long, though.

“B-but!-” Nikita stammered. “That… that guy! He just-!”

“I know,” Jc interjected. He pointed in the direction of where the dude went. “Look over there.”

Nikita followed his hand, and saw Asshole McFuckface rounding a corner. Unfortunately for McFuckface, a couple of officers just so happened to hear the commotion and saw him. One of the officers started yelling, “Hey, you! Stop!” and ran after him. Officer number two started saying something into his walkie talkie.

“That guy will handle it,” Jc assured her.

Nikita took a breath. It was probably for the best, considering she wasn’t in the mood to be detained today. As embarrassing as it was to admit, she was glad Jc stopped her.

Then she remembered why she was charging after the guy. She turned back around to see Safiya and Roi still on the ground. They both looked like they were still trying to process what the hell just happened. Jc and Nikita both rushed over and helped them up.

“Are you guys alright?” Nikita asked as she pulled Safiya to her feet. Her scrape seemed to have broken the skin on her elbow, but it wasn’t anything serious.

“U-uhhh…” Safiya blurted out. “Yeah… yeah, I’m good.”

Roi shook his arms around. “Yep… everything is awesome.”

They both still seemed pretty shook, but neither of them were harmed. Good. Nikita was glad.

She really was. For some reason.

She was a little confused, though. She usually only got like that when one of her friends were going through something like that…

Nikita pushed that thought to the back of her mind.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Officer number two jogging toward them. For some reason, she felt nervous. She straightened herself up, and tried to look as casual as possible.

 _Yes, hi, hello, Police Human,_ Nikita thought, making fun of herself. _Your hat is good. I am the Nikita. Nothing to see here!_

“You kids okay?” the officer asked once he was close enough.

“We’re alright officer,” Roi told him. “It’s just been… really crazy around here lately.”

Safiya nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I think we’re all just a little on edge right now.”

“I understand,” the officer replied. “Things have been pretty chaotic in this school over the past couple of days, from what I’ve heard.

“Yeah,” Nikita said. “You have _no_ idea…”

_Really… you don’t…_

“Well, don’t worry,” the officer said. “We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for any more troublemakers.”

 _I’m sure you will,_ Nikita thought worriedly.

“Thanks, officer,” Jc said. “We’ll be sure to keep an eye out, too.”

“Alright,” the officer said. “You kids be careful.” And he walked off, not thinking anything of Jc’s statement.

Okay, no one was too suspicious of them… yet.

 

“Who _was_ that guy?” Jc wanted to know.

Jc knew very few assholes in the world, mostly because he tried not to hang around assholes. He just didn’t need that in his life. And he definitely didn’t know many assholes who would deliberately do something like _that._

Safiya made a face. “I think it was that Willie kid.”

“That weird guy who’s always trying to sell people mediocre food?” Nikita asked.

“Just the same,” Safiya replied, and she shook her head. “That guy creeps me out.”

Of course. Willie, that guy who thought of himself as some kind of salesman. He once sold Jc an old soft taco when they were freshmen, and he ended up getting food poisoning. He could barely eat anything for a week. It didn’t even have any tomatoes or cheese in it.

 _Worst six bucks I’d ever spent,_ Jc thought. It didn't surprise Jc at all that Willie would do something that reckless.

“Good lord,” Nikita muttered. “People are wildin’ out here.”

“I know,” Jc agreed. “The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better.”

“Roi!” Safiya exclaimed. “Your hand is bleeding!”

“Huh?” Roi asked, lifting up his hands. Sure enough, he was bleeding a little bit from his left hand. “Oh. Look at that.”

“You sure are casual about that, man,” Jc said. Then again, his injury didn’t look that bad.

Roi shrugged. “I’ve had worse. This one time, I broke, like, three bones when I was trying to ride my bike down this really big hill on Gooseberry Lane. By the time I got up again, there were-”

Nikita covered Roi’s mouth and cut him off. “ _IIIII’m_ gonna make sure he gets to the nurse. You guys go ahead. We’ll see you at lunch.”

Jc was a little grateful for that interruption. He kinda didn’t want to relive that story again.

“Okay,” Jc said. “But no running after anyone else.”

“No promises!”

With that, the four of them parted ways in their respective pairs. Jc still needed to get to his locker to store his skateboard. It was pretty much the only thing he used his locker for. Safiya’s first class of the day was on the way, so they walked in that direction together. As they made their way through the main building, Jc couldn’t help but notice how quiet Safiya was.

“You good, Saf?” he asked.

Safiya looked like she was just pulled out of a trance. “That was… kinda nice of Nikita.”

“Which part? Nearly rushing up on Willie, or taking Roi to the nurse?”

“Both, I guess. I mean, I always thought Nikita was the cold, conniving Slytherin type who’d rip you to shreds if you looked at her funny. Seeing her do something like that was a bit unexpected.”

Jc didn’t really blame her. If he was being honest, he thought he’d had Nikita all figured out a long time ago. But as of late, she’d just kept surprising him. They _all_ were, really.

“Well,” Jc said, “you’d be surprised by what would happen if you just give people a chance. Ro and I saw that first hand a few nights ago.”

They turned a corner to walk up a flight of stairs to the second floor. Jc was pretty sure this was the same stairwell they’d almost fell down a few nights ago.

“Yeah,” Safiya said thoughtfully as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. “Ro told us about the harness incident.”

“You guys know about the harness?”

“Yeah. Actually, Matt had a theory about it.”

“Really?” At first, Jc was just a little self conscious that someone else knew about his little endeavor. But now, he was curious about that theory.

Safiya nodded. “He thinks it might have come from the theatre department. I’ll go with him and Ro to take a look to see whether or not it’s been returned.”

“Awesome, you guys do that.” They finally reached Jc’s locker. He stopped for a moment to open it, and stashed his board inside. “Anyway, as much as Nikita might not want to admit it, I get the feeling she likes hanging out with us.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I do. Who knows? Maybe she’ll surprise us again.”

 

A few hours later, Teala was walking with Manny through the halls of the arts/science building in search of the supply closet. Their third period biology class was about to start a project on photosynthesis or something, and the class needed posterboard to get started. Teala didn’t care about the poster board, though. She and Manny were more interested in spending a few minutes alone to talk about whatever the heck those ghosts were after.

“Seriously,” Manny said. “I swear, ‘give it back’ is spoken, like, in every other sentence.”

“Well, if _you_ were a ghost,” Teala pondered, “what wouldn’t you be able to move on without?”

Uh, was that even a question?

“My makeup,” Manny replied without missing a beat.

Teala snickered. “I thought so. But seriously. It might be something valuable to them.”

“In that case, maybe something we know about them right now could give us some sort of clue?”

Teala thought for a bit. What _did_ they know about the ghosts so far?

Well, they knew that they were all teachers. Robert and Simon were cousins. They had a grandfather who was a soldier. Robert and Catherine were in love.

 _But how does all this add up?_ Teala wondered.

As they were about to turn a corner that lead to the closet, the temperature suddenly dropped. And Teala knew in an _instant_ what that meant. 

_Oh, no! Not again!_

She froze in her tracks and grabbed Manny by the arm. Teala was _not_ in the mood to be chased again! They needed to hide, but where could they go? They couldn’t just barge into a random classroom, and they were nowhere near the bathrooms. They _did_ have access to lockers, though. And these specific lockers were nice and big.

“In the lockers!” Teala hissed.

Manny instantly dashed into one of the nearby lockers and pulled the door shut. Thankfully, it didn’t have a combination lock on it, so he could get out as soon as the coast was clear. It must have been a pretty tight squeeze, but Manny managed to fit by some miracle. 

Teala saw another one nearby that was also lacking a lock, and ducked inside. It wasn’t as difficult for her, who was small enough to fit with a bit of room to spare.

 _It’s fine,_ Teala told herself as she shrunk into the tiny locker. _Everything’s fine. They won’t see us._

Teala tried to quiet her breathing and keep herself as still as she could. All she needed to do was stay calm and silent. The ghosts wouldn’t notice her and Manny.

 

 _Huh, just like the good ol’ days of middle school,_ Manny almost joked.

Maybe his brain was trying to bring up some other memory to distract him from his terror. Needless to say, it wasn’t really helping. The locker was the equivalent of a one-person sardine can. If sardine cans were blue, had little slits, and smelled like watercolor paint.

Not to mention it was freezing in there, for some stupid reason! The only three reasons that came to his mind was the air conditioner close by, the fact that it was a metal locker, or the energy the ghosts were giving off.

_Well, obviously, the only reasonable explanation is ghosts._

“ _... asked me not to tell you._ ” Manny heard Simon’s voice rounding a corner. “ _I promise it wasn’t anything bad, though._ ”

“ _I didn’t think it was,_ ” Robert’s voice replied. “ _She’s never really been the type to keep a problem from me._ ”

Manny had a feeling they were talking about Catherine. He was a little hesitant to admit it, but they seemed different now that they were just talking and roaming through the halls. They seemed so much more human when they weren’t shrieking at people.

“ _But about this… plan. Do you think it’ll work?_ ” Robert asked

“ _It’s going to have to._ ” Simon told his cousin. He sounded like he wanted to believe the words that came out of his own mouth. “ _We really don’t have any other choice if we want to find that old jewelry box._ ”

 _Jewelry box?_ Manny repeated in his head.

 _That’s_ what this was about? A damn jewelry box?!

Manny couldn’t believe it! _That’s_ why they were terrorizing the school? Over a dumb little box that grandmas use?! He was about five seconds away from banging his head against the locker, when he had a thought.

Jewelry boxes aren’t necessarily only used for decoration. They’re used to keep things safe. Whatever was inside that jewelry box was what the ghosts had been looking for.

But it didn’t seem like the box was the only thing they were talking about.

Manny cautiously leaned forward against the cold metal surface. He peeked through the slits to get a look at the ghosts. Simon was turned so that Manny could only see the back of his head, but Manny could just make out Robert’s face. He looked almost… worried.

“ _Even so…_ ” Robert muttered. “ _Is it wise to let them intervene? What if they got hurt?_ ”

“ _They’ll be fine. They seem like a smart bunch of kids. Maybe they can help us as he implied._ ”

“ _I suppose. I just wish we could tell them who really brought us here…_ ”

“ _I know. We all do._ ”

Manny backed up from the slits a bit. Were they talking about him and his friends? He was a little surprised. All this time, the ghosts had been antagonizing them. And now they were concerned for their safety?

And why couldn’t they spill the tea about the Specter’s identity?

Robert drooped. “ _I just hope we haven’t scared them off. They may be wise, but fearless..? I’m not so sure._ ”

Well, yeah. That much was obvious by that point. (Hey, lookie there, they were hiding in lockers!)

“ _Don’t worry, cousin,_ ” Simon assured him. “ _I saw a few of them today already. I don’t think they’ll give up on us anytime soon._ ”

Manny couldn’t put his finger on it, but something about the tone in Simon’s voice seemed somewhat grateful.

The two of them started off, and Manny watched as they left the narrow view of the slits. He heard a sort of floppy, clattering sound, like something had been dropped on the floor. Manny waited a few moments before pushing the locker door open and stepping out. The two of them had vanished just as quickly as they’d appeared.

Teala climbed out of her own hiding spot, her eyes the size of golf balls.

“Bitch…” Manny whispered. “Did you hear that?”

“The jewelry box thing? Yeah.”

Well, Manny had definitely heard that, too. Now that they knew that the ghosts were looking for a jewelry box, it made things a little easier for them. At least now they knew why the ghosts kept screaming at them to return it. Maybe the ghosts thought the gang could figure out where it was.

“Well, there’s the jewelry box,” Manny said. “But I mean the other stuff too. They actually think we can find it.”

“And they were being _nice_ about it,” Teala added. “Maybe Roi was right about them. They really _do_ need our help.”

Manny didn’t really know as much about ghosts as the next person, but he figured most ghosts just stuck around to mess with people. But now?

Teala’s gaze wandered down the hall. “Manny, look over there.”

He followed her eyes. On the floor, just a few yards away from where they were just hiding, were eight fresh sheets of poster board.

 

Meanwhile, third period gym class was about to buckle down. Rosanna and Nikita were showing Colleen, Joey and Matt where they’d found some of their clues. The scorches on the floor had been mostly cleaned up, but there seemed to be a permanent scar from the explosion. As for the mechanical box with the harness and cord, it was nowhere to be found, as Rosanna had expected.

“So, this is where it was set up?” Matt asked.

“Yeah,” Rosanna replied. “There was this little metal box and everything that kept it in place.”

She recalled her second period theatre class that morning when Matt led her and Safiya backstage to take a look at the backup lines. To their surprise, the missing harness and cord had both been returned.

“The Specter must be trying to cover his tracks,” Joey suggested.

“Looks like somebody’s getting scared,” Colleen said with a sneer.

“Well, duh,” Nikita said. “Why _wouldn’t_ he be?” 

“Yeah!” Rosanna agreed. “We’re onto him like food on a ‘non-stick’ pan!”

Rosanna was loving everything about this! She was in a particularly good mood that day for two specific reasons. The first reason was that the class would be playing dodgeball, which Rosanna was really good at. The second reason was that she was smack dab in the middle of solving a mystery with a whole bunch of wonderful new friends!

After a few minutes, Coach O'Neil blew the whistle signalling everyone to line up. He was a tall and red-haired with a bit of a dad beard.

The coach read through his clipboard, going over the rules and guidelines. “As always,” he concluded, “you’ll be split into two teams. Red shirts vs. white shirts.”

That was usually how the class was split if they were playing a team sport. Half of the gym would be wearing red mesh tank jerseys, while the other half stuck to their usual white gym shirts. A quick glance down the line of students assured Rosanna that she and her friends were all close enough to the edge to play on the same team. Awesome! At least they wouldn’t be pinned against each other. That was the last thing Rosanna wanted right now.

“Coach O'Neil?” Joey chimed in, raising his hand.

“Yeah, Graceffa?”

“Are we sure we went over all the safety guidelines?”

From the far side of the line, Rosanna heard someone mutter, “I got a safety guideline for ya.”

Rosanna followed the voice to the end of the line to see Wilmer. Standing next to him, snickering at his threat, was his girlfriend, Veronica.

Rosanna scooted closer to her friends. Wilmer was scary enough on his own, but with Veronica thrown into the mix, they both made the monster under the bed look like a happy pile of hamsters. While Wilmer usually used physical force to get his way, Veronica used insults and intimidation to get what she wanted. They were the world’s worst storm.

Nikita scoffed. “Does she honestly think I don’t notice her shoes?” she muttered under her breath.

Rosanna thought back to the locker room, and remembered that Veronica had been wearing the same boots as Nikita. If someone wore something similar to what Rosanna was wearing, she’d be flattered. But considering it was Veronica, she could see why Nikita didn’t like that.

“Too bad Manny isn’t here to throw another sandwich at Wilmer, huh?” Matt whispered to Rosanna, and she smirked at the memory.

Within minutes, the two teams split up. Rosanna, Matt, Joey and the others on the left side of the gym pulled on their red tank tops. Team White Shirt, which included Wilmer and Veronica, were already on their way to their side of the gym.

Rosanna steadied herself once she got to Team Red Shirt’s side, sizing up her opponents. They totally had this! They could do it!

 

The whistle blew, and balls started flying. The gym was filled with shrieking and yelling as red rubber balls shot through the air. Shane Dawson scooped up a ball and threw it at an opposing team member. Jesse Wellens was dodging and throwing balls with pretty impressive precision. From somewhere in the gym, Joey heard Bretman Rock yelling, “I’m ‘bout to throw these balls at your ugly _ass!_ ” after someone on Team White Shirt messed up his eyeshadow.

Joey normally sucked at dodgeball quite exceptionally, so he probably would have run away and hid in the boy’s locker room until it was over. Thankfully, though, the food fight from a couple of Fridays ago had given him and his friends a bit of practice.

“Matt!” Joey warned. “Three o’clock low!”

Matt instantly leaped out of the way of a ball heading for his right leg. Joey noticed that he was wearing track pants instead of gym shorts (“because he’s self conscious about his legs,” Rosanna had said earlier with a smirk). It occurred to Joey that if Matt had gotten a bruise on his leg, it would probably go unnoticed. Either way, he didn’t get hit, so that was good.

“To your left, Joey!” Colleen called out.

Joey turned his head, and saw a red rubber ball flying at him. He ducked in the nick of time as the ball zipped above his head.

“Thank you!” Joey said to Colleen in a singsong voice.

Not far away, Joey noticed Rosanna hopping over a ball, and Matt leaning to the right away from another.

“Ro!” Matt exclaimed. “Quick! Helicopter maneuver!”

“Yes, sir!” Rosanna replied.

The two of them grabbed each other’s hands. Rosanna jumped in the air, and Matt spun her around with all his might. They were just in time for Rosanna to be able to kick an incoming ball back across the gym. He set her back down after a single twirl, and the two of them excitedly high-fived.

“Romatta Patsino for the win!” Matt cheered.

Rosanna pumped her fists in the air and screamed, “Whoo! Yeah!”

Joey snickered to himself. _If these two aren’t the teenage version of Dipper and Mabel Pines,_ _I don’t know who is._

Another ball came zooming in their direction, thrown by GloZell Green. Nikita leaped into the air and caught it with both hands, giving her free reign of the ball. She scanned the gym for a victim to throw it at.

Joey pointed at Alex Wassabi and exclaimed, “Wassabi! Twelve o’clock!”

“I see ‘em!” Nikita said. She wound up the ball and let it fly. Joey heard a satisfying _THONK!_ As the ball hit him in the arm. “ _Yes!_ ” Nikita cheered as she pumped her fists.

After a few minutes into the game, Coach O'Neil eventually called, “Time!”

Joey looked over at the doors to see Timothy DeLaGhetto flashing the class a thumbs-up as he limped out of the gym, the coach in tow. Joey swore, Tim was one of the few people who would smile at everyone as he limped away in pain.

As the coach shut the double doors, students started mingling and chatting. Joey and the others stood in a circle making small talk with each other.

“Well!” Nikita chirped after a bit of chatter. “I’m gonna go fix my wig.”

Joey gave her blonde hair a quick once over. It looked just fine, perfect as always.

“You look okay to me,” Joey told her.

“Honey,” Nikita said, “I can’t be too careful. I can sense when my wig’s been messed with from a mile away.”

She turned on her heel and started toward the girl’s locker room, but not before blowing Joey and the others a kiss.

Matt nudged Joey in the arm. “Is she always like that?” he asked.

“Huh?” Joey asked. “Like what?”

“Y’know…” Matt spun his hands around, like he was trying to think of the right word. “Overly imposing?”

Joey thought about that. Matt and Nikita weren’t exactly best friends, and it showed. During their detentions in the library, the two of them had exchanged more unpleasant looks than Joey could count on his fingers.

Even so, the two of them didn’t really know each other that well. Not really, at least.

He shrugged. “Well, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, my dear Matthew. Maybe you guys could get along if you gave each other a chance.”

Matt nodded. “I’ll believe that when I see it,” he muttered.

 

Colleen stretched out her arms and legs. It felt a little different having a group to hang out with in P.E.. Normally, she saw Joey and Nikita together, and Matt and Rosanna together. Colleen would either be by her lonesome, or just hang out with random kids. Not that that change of pace was necessarily a bad thing.

“Anyway,” Matt said, “what’s the story with lunch today?”

Joey took the liberty of answering. “We’re gonna go over all of our clues with the rest of the gang. Don’t worry, we haven't forgotten about it.”

“No, I know,” Matt said. “I meant why haven’t we brought lunch today?”

Rosanna gave her and Joey a suspecting sneer, like she was getting a hunch that they liked Krabby Patties after outright denying it. “Did you guys make something for us?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Matt added, “is there gonna be some kind of mystery potluck?”

Colleen and Joey exchanged a knowing glance.

“In a sense,” Colleen replied slyly.

“Aw, come on!” Matt probed. “That’s not fair.”

“That’s for us to know, and you two to find out,” Joey answered with a smile.

Colleen texted Roi and Joey Sunday afternoon, and they had a mutual agreement to surprise the others with a giant pudding buffet. Granted, though, Manny and Nikita knew about Joey’s share of the loot, but at least they didn’t know they’d be eating it on that particular day. Other than that, no one suspected a thing. Maybe it wasn’t a balanced meal, but it would be delicious! Besides, after everything else they’d been through, Colleen figured they all deserved a treat. 

All of a sudden - _POW!_

A dodgeball came flying at Matt out of nowhere, slamming into his stomach. He forcefully released a giant puff of air and fell to his knees.

“ _MATT!_ ” Rosanna and Joey both exclaimed.

“Holy shit!” Colleen yelled. “Matt, are you-”

Before Colleen could finish her sentence, a second ball rammed her square in the face. She saw stars as she fell to the floor. She thought she could hear Rosanna screaming and Joey yelling something, but they both sounded like they were underwater for a brief moment.

When Colleen came to her senses, she noticed a pair of hands gripping her arm. It was Joey. She glanced to her left to see Rosanna tending to Matt. Joey and Rosanna pulled both of them to their feet, fussing over them like a pair of mother hens.

Joey put a hand both of their shoulders. “Are you okay, guys?”

“I think so,” Matt replied in a strained tone. He was bent over a bit, holding his side like it hurt to stand.

“Yeah,” Colleen agreed.

She rubbed her eyes. She definitely didn’t feel like crying, but the ball hit her nose with enough force to make her eyes water from a nervous reflex. She took her hands away to glance around the gym. Almost everyone had noticed the commotion. Some were staring at them with quizzical expressions. Others covered their mouths or gasped in shock. A few assholes were snickering.

“Are you sure?” Rosanna asked, standing on her tip toes and pulling Colleen and Matt down to her level so she could inspect their heads. “Can you still see? Do you feel like you have a concussion?” She held up three fingers and asked, “Colleen, quick! How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Three,” Colleen replied.

Rosanna pulled a strand of her hair in a fluster. “ _Augh!_ There _is_ something wrong! I’m holding up one…” That’s when she got a look at her hand. “Two, three - that’s all I’m holding up?”

“It would appear so,” Matt replied.

“Oh!” Rosanna exclaimed, putting a hand on their arms. “It’s okay, Joey! They’re fine.”

“Thanks for being thorough, Ro,” Joey chuckled.

Colleen gave Rosanna’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze. She appreciated how sweet the gesture was. Even so, she was still pissed about something. They’d just been in a time out! No one was supposed to be throwing balls at anyone, and certainly not with _that_ kind of force!

“Who threw that?!” Colleen shouted, giving herself a bit of deja vu from when she yelled that before the food fight.

No one spoke up. But a few people were looking around to see if the culprit would identify themselves.

“This isn’t funny!” Matt hollered.

“Yeah!” Joey agreed. “Who did that?!”

“Ah, shut up!” a dude’s voice called out. And Colleen knew exactly who that voice was.

She traced the voice through the crowd, and found the perpetrators. It was none other than Wilmer Jones and his girlfriend, Veronica. The two of them were walking right up to Colleen and the others.

_Oh. Great…_

Those two weren’t exactly at the top of Colleen’s list of favorite people. First of all, Wilmer reminded Colleen of a very large, terrifying Logan Paul. Second of all, Veronica was a shady bitch who basically said whatever she felt like without consideration for consequences.

She was not in the mood to deal with these two right now. But the looks on their faces told her that _they_ were the ones who chucked those balls at her and Matt.

 

Joey moved himself in front of his friends as the two bullies stopped right in front of them. If these two wanted to tussle with any of them, they’d have to get through _him!_

 _They’re gonna eat me alive, aren’t they?_ Joey realized in the back of his mind.

“What the hell?!” Joey snapped. “We were in a time out!  was _that_ about?!”

“I’d call it ‘vigilante justice,’” Wilmer replied with a stupid chuckle.

“But _dodgeballs?!_ ” Matt cried out. “I’d call that ‘unnecessary violence,’ if you asked me!”

“I meant to hit the runt instead of the other bitch,” Wilmer said to Matt, and then glared at Colleen.

Colleen shrunk and started rambling. Joey remembered it was a habit of hers when she was nervous. “I mean…Y’know - dodgeballs could seriously hurt people if you threw them hard enough. But, like, I assumed you knew that already. In my defense, though, your head does kinda look like an egg, Wilmer. Not that it’s a big deal - it’s just I’d normally associate that with stupidity - _Uh!_ Not that I think you’re stupid! I just meant you look stupid! Not like as an insult or anything but-”

“Oh, will you shut up already?!” Wilmer barked.

“ _Okay._ ” Colleen squeaked.

Joey stretched out a protective arm in front of Colleen. “The point is,” he said, “you two have no right to pull that kind of stuff! And you _certainly_ didn’t have to do that to my friends!”

“I’d say it was pretty deserved,” Veronica replied casually, like she was talking about going grocery shopping.

“After all,” Wilmer said, “Minnie Mouse and Poindexter over there got me busted out of school all last week.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Joey saw Justine Ezarik rushing out of the gym. She was probably going to get the coach. He hoped they all got back before things got too ugly.

“It wasn’t our fault!” Matt protested. “You were about to pound me into the floor!”

“Yeah!” Rosanna agreed. “And you pushed me and Safiya to the ground!”

“Oh, look,” Veronica said. “Minnie Mouse speaks.”

Rosanna stamped her foot. “I might be a mouse, but that doesn’t mean you can treat us like that!”

Joey didn’t know what he was more impressed by: the angry look on Rosanna’s face, or how serious she sounded. She was like a brave little gnome glaring up at a pair of beasts.

Wilmer seemed unfazed. “Friendly reminder that I was aiming for _you,_ munchkin. Want me to try again?”

Rosanna shrunk as Matt pushed her behind him.

“Leave them alone!” Joey demanded.

He balled his hands into fists, and his breathing was getting more vapid. He couldn’t believe the nerve of these two!

Wilmer rolled his eyes. “You don’t scare me, crystal freak,” Wilmer told Joey.

“Okay,” Joey said, “is it _really_ necessary to bring my love of crystals into this?”

“By the way, what’s the deal with you two, anyway?” Veronica asked, gesturing to Joey and Colleen. “I thought you hated each other. Is this, like, a thing now?”

“No,” Colleen asserted. She seemed to have gotten control of her word vomit.

“Why would that even matter?” Joey asked.

Veronica shrugged. “I mean, I thought it’d be funny if it was, like, a hate-fuck thing or something.”

“ _What?!_ ” Joey shrieked.

Joey physically recoiled at that. He felt like a lion had just roared in his face, and projectile vomited a giant sack of potatoes right at his head in the process. And then the potatoes turned into bricks, and each of the individual bricks hit him with a truck.

Did that chick ever think about the shit that came out of her mouth?!

Colleen looked like she’d just sucked a lemon. “ _Dude, ew!_ What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“ _O-freakin’-kay!_ ” Joey stated. “First of all, _no._ Second of all, what Colleen said. And third of all - guess what(?) - I’m _gay!_ ”

Wilmer gave Joey a quick once-over. “Yeah, that’s obvio-”

_WHAM!_

A ball shot right at Wilmer and struck his forehead. He stumbled over and crashed into Veronica. They both tumbled to the ground in a heap, causing the gym to erupt in laughter.

Joey shrieked. Colleen gasped. Rosanna flailed. Matt covered his mouth in shock.

“Oh, my God!” Joey cried.

Veronica squirmed and struggled under her boyfriend. “Get off me, you giant oaf!”

Wilmer rolled off of Veronica and onto the hardwood floor. “Who the hell-”

Before Wilmer could get his question out, Joey heard a sharp, enraged voice that would make even the bravest of champions piss their pants in fear.

“ _Fucking back the fuck off my fucking friends, right fucking now._ ”

It was Nikita. She’d just come out of the bathroom. Her wig looked perfect. And she looked like she was about ready to grab someone by the hair, and throw them into a trash can.

 

Okay.

Okay.

Oh. Fucking. Kay.

Nikita had had it about up to her eyeballs with all these bitches trying to pull dumb crap. She could deal with one incident from that morning, _maybe._ But two in one day?! 

Wilmer and Veronica pushed themselves up, glaring at Nikita. Like, how dare she try to take their prey away from them or some shit.

Now, Veronica didn’t scare Nikita, especially considering she was a shoe thief. Admittedly, though, Nikita was maybe a little intimidated by Wilmer. That was partially because he reminded her of a gorilla disguised as a seventeen-year-old boy who got held back a year. She knew perfectly well that he could break her spine like a toothpick right there in front of everyone. But at that moment, a bigger part of her didn’t give a shit.

Nikita had one rule above all others that she enforced with no exceptions. If you mess with her friends, you mess with her. And _nobody_ messes with her, especially pieces of shit who tried to mess with her friends.

She forced whatever fear she had deep down into her body, and glared back at them with the fury of a cobra that hadn’t eaten in three days. She figured she’d give them a taste of their own medicine and take them down a peg. She was an expert at that, after all.

“What do you want, bitch?” Wilmer growled.

“First of all,” Nikita started, narrowing her eyes. “Nice boots from earlier, Veronica.” She almost laughed at the look on Veronica’s face. “Second of all, you heard me. Back off of them, doorstops.”

“What did you just call us?” Wilmer demanded.

“What, ‘doorstops?’ Is that insult too big of a word for you? Don’t be scared.”

That triggered a few giggles from the crowd. Wilmer shot them all a dirty look, and they shut up. Nikita never understood the total hard-on that some people had over terrorizing people like that. Sure, she fought people sometimes, too. But it was for a reason - mostly for being a bitch in some way shape or form. Other times, it was for the kinds of people who picked on others just for the sake of it.

Nikita _hated_ bitches like that.

Veronica jabbed her finger at Nikita. “How about you mind your own business before this gets any worse for you?”

“How about you take a step back, Veronica?” Nikita warned. “I’d recommend it…”

Wilmer butted in. “You’re seriously defending these little shits?”

Nikita placed her hands on her hips. “Why don’t you two pick on someone your own size? I hear _yours_ is pretty small, after all, Wilmer.”

Wilmer looked flustered. He quickly glanced down, then back at Nikita. “What - How did you kn-” He stopped himself.

Honestly, this guy’s masculinity was about as fragile as a tea cup. Nikita could hear a few people stifling their laughter, including her four investigation partners.

“Okay, that’s it,” Wilmer glowered.

He stalked toward Nikita with Veronica in tow. Nikita could tell they were ready for a fight. She was never one to back down from a fight, and Nikita would love nothing more than to slam both of their faces into the hardwood floor. But with all the cops snooping around, well as the teachers breathing down everyone’s necks, and her recently done nails, she couldn’t risk it.

So she decided to try something else.

As they closed in on Nikita, she slammed the heel of her left sneaker into Wilmer’s foot. She then reached her hands up, grabbed hold of Veronica’s hair and pinched Wilmer’s ear. _Hard._ They both winced in pain, which was more than Nikita expected.

Nikita leaned in, and lowered her voice an octave. “Do you remember what happened in sixth grade? That was when I broke Randy Pitcher’s wrist after he fucked with Manny. And his little goons both had black eyes for two weeks. Do either of you want that to happen to you?”

They didn’t say anything. Again, logically speaking, Nikita knew she probably couldn’t take down Wilmer in a fight. Veronica, maybe, but not Wilmer. But she didn’t care, as long as she could get her damn point across.

“ _You two are lucky I’m not in the mood to break a damn nail today,_ ” Nikita growled at them through gritted teeth. 

She let go of Wilmer’s ear and Veronica’s hair, and they both stumbled back. That’s when Nikita noticed all the eyes on her. Of all the times people had stared at her for the past couple of weeks, she felt fine with it this time.

“So, here’s what’s gonna happen now,” Nikita asserted. “You two are gonna leave them alone, along with the rest of my friends. And you’re gonna just pretend this whole thing didn’t happen. And if you decide to pull more shit like this on them…” She looked at Veronica first. “I’m gonna rip those boots - that _I_ wore first and look better on _me_ by the by - right off, and slam both of them right in your face!” She turned to Wilmer. “And then, I’m gonna take those same boots, shove one down your throat, and the other so far up your ass, that you’ll be tasting dirt and cheap knockoff pleather for a month!” She folded her arms confidently. “How’s that sound?”

Again, they didn’t say anything for a moment. They both just stood there with stupid looks on their stupid faces. But those looks carried a begrudging “ _fine._ ”

At that moment, Coach O'Neil had reentered the gym. “What’s going on here?”

Nikita knew how to deal with this. She’d had years of practice. “Nothing, sir,” she replied in a much more respectful tone. “Wilmer and Veronica and I were just having a chat. In fact, they were just about to go on their way.” She turned back to the two of them, and in the most sweetheart-like voice she could muster, she said, “Isn’t that right, guys?”

God, Nikita wished she had her phone with her so she could take a picture of their faces.

“Uh, yeah,” Wilmer spat out hesitantly. “C’mon, babe.”

Wilmer grabbed Veronica’s hand and dragged her off, but not before she turned around and gave Nikita one last dirty look.

Nikita scoffed. _Good riddance, bitches._

Gradually, people went back to their own business. From across the gym, her friend, Bretman, was smiling at her and flashing her a thumbs-up. She flashed him a thumbs-up right back.

She glanced over at her friends, who were gaping at the sight they’d just witnessed. She heard a commotion while she was in the locker room, and she had enough context to know that Matt and Colleen got hit by dodgeballs. It didn’t look like anything was wrong at first glance, but if anything bad was up with them at all, a bitch was _really_ gonna get hurt!

“Are you guys okay?” Nikita asked. “You don’t have any, like, broken faces or something, right?”

“No,” Matt replied. “We’re fine now.”

“I think you might have just saved our asses,” Joey said. “Thanks, Nikita.”

“Seriously, thanks,” Colleen said.

Rosanna smiled proudly at her. “We owe you one, girl.”

Nikita felt a rush of… something. Joey was already one of her ride or die bitches, and Rosanna was pretty cool. But she didn’t even like Matt and Colleen a few days ago. Hell, she didn’t like most of the others either. So why was it that throughout the day, she felt this warmth for all of them that wasn’t there before?

That was when she realized that she’d called them her friends.

 

The rest of gym passed by in a blur. Everyone resumed their game like that whole plethora of drama hadn’t just happened. Matt was okay with that, especially because Veronica and Wilmer were finally leaving them alone. Team Red Shirt ended up winning the game 3 - 2, so that was a plus as far as things went.

When Coach O'Neil finally blew the whistle to signal the end of gym, Matt glanced in the direction of the girl’s locker room. Nikita was keeping a tight grip on Colleen’s and Rosanna’s arms, flashing the death glare to end all death glares at Veronica.

In the boy’s locker room, Matt caught Wilmer looking at him and Joey, only to immediately turn the other way and focus a suspicious amount of attention tying his already tied shoes. Whatever Wilmer was thinking, Matt had a feeling that he wouldn’t be pulling any of his old tricks any time soon.

“Well…” Matt said, coughing awkwardly. “That was… something.”

Joey shut his locker after he was done changing. “Wasn’t it? I wish I’d brought a snack or something.”

“Is that something Nikita does a lot?”

“Well… I wouldn’t say ‘a lot.’  But it does happen whenever someone messes with someone she cares about.”

Matt had to admit, he was a little surprised. He never thought he’d think, _Wow, Nikita Dragun of all people just stuck up for me._ And there he was, thinking just that. Nikita freaking Dragun just protected him and the others from a bully.

Matt had gone to school with Nikita for years, but they never really talked. Four years worth of overhearing gossip and seeing glimpses of her fights had rubbed Matt in a way that he never liked. Because of all that, he usually avoided Nikita as much as he could.

Now that they were solving a mystery together, he saw a different side of her. A more protective side. She’d saved him at least three times over the past few days. She’d saved him and Rosanna from getting crushed by books. She shoved a door into the Specter when he was about to attach him, Manny and Teala. She saved Matt and the others from a pair of bullies.

Joey shrugged and said, “Nikita can be a bitch sometimes. But if someone messes with her friends…” He shook his head. “She turns into a damn ultrabitch.”

Maybe that was something that Matt could relate to. He was usually a pretty passive person, but if push came to shove, he’d do anything he could to protect the people he loved.

“Huh…” Matt said. “Maybe I misjudged her.”

He seemed to be misjudging a lot of people, and he was glad to be proven wrong by them the more he learned about them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things:  
> Yes, I did indeed go back and add Colleen's rambling at the last minute after I watched the season finale and I have no regrets
> 
> I'm gonna see if I can't shorten the upcoming chapters a bit
> 
> After I posted the last chapter, I realized we surpassed 1000 hits! Thanks so much for the support everyone!! It really means a lot! <3
> 
> Next Time: Jerry the janitor hates his job, the pudding feast ensues, and the gang goes over their findings


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